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Nuclear Installations Safety
Devoted specifically to the safety of nuclear installations and the health and safety of the public, this division seeks a better understanding of the role of safety in the design, construction and operation of nuclear installation facilities. The division also promotes engineering and scientific technology advancement associated with the safety of such facilities.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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Latest News
First astatine-labeled compound shipped in the U.S.
The Department of Energy’s National Isotope Development Center (NIDC) on March 31 announced the successful long-distance shipment in the United States of a biologically active compound labeled with the medical radioisotope astatine-211 (At-211). Because previous shipments have included only the “bare” isotope, the NIDC has described the development as “unleashing medical innovation.”
Koroush Shirvan, Mujid Kazimi
Nuclear Technology | Volume 184 | Number 3 | December 2013 | Pages 274-286
Technical Paper | Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-A24985
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An optimization search over all design parameters yields a boiling water reactor (BWR) with high power density (BWR-HD) at a power level of 5000 MW(thermal), equivalent to a 26% uprated Advanced BWR (ABWR), the latest version of operating BWR. This results in economic benefits, estimated to be [approximately]20% capital and operation and maintenance costs and similar total fuel cycle cost per unit electricity. A safety analysis of the BWR-HD was performed and compared with that of the ABWR. It covered a range of transients, involving a decrease in reactor coolant inventory or coolant system flow rate, changes in coolant temperature along with increase in reactor pressure, and a reactivity-initiated transient. The BWR-HD's different core flow velocity, feedwater flow rate, core inlet temperature, void coefficient of reactivity, pressure drop, core fuel loading, and volume of fluid in the core resulted in very different response to transients. In general, the 1.3-m-shorter core results in faster scram times and lower total positive reactivity insertions during the transients, which improves the BWR-HD's performance compared to that of the ABWR. The core remains covered and the pressure in the reactor pressure vessel never rises above the licensing limits during any of the simulated transients. The change in minimum critical power ratio for the BWR-HD was smaller than or equal to that of the reference ABWR in all of the six simulated transients. For the loss-of-coolant-inventory accidents and severe accidents, the BWR-HD qualitative performance was judged to be acceptable and could result in an improved response with the lower fuel and zirconium loading.