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Division Spotlight
Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
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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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RP3C Community of Practice’s fifth anniversary
In February, the Community of Practice (CoP) webinar series, hosted by the American Nuclear Society Standards Board’s Risk-informed, Performance-based Principles and Policies Committee (RP3C), celebrated its fifth anniversary. Like so many online events, these CoPs brought people together at a time when interacting with others became challenging in early 2020. Since the kickoff CoP, which highlighted the impact that systems engineering has on the design of NuScale’s small modular reactor, the last Friday of most months has featured a new speaker leading a discussion on the use of risk-informed, performance-based (RIPB) thinking in the nuclear industry. Providing a venue to convene for people within ANS and those who found their way online by another route, CoPs are an opportunity for the community to receive answers to their burning questions about the subject at hand. With 50–100 active online participants most months, the conversation is always lively, and knowledge flows freely.
Karel L. Papez, Daniel H. Risher
Nuclear Technology | Volume 61 | Number 2 | May 1983 | Pages 260-275
Technical Paper | Second International RETRAN Meeting / Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow | doi.org/10.13182/NT83-A33196
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The loss-of-main-feedwater transient without reactor trip (scram) has received particular attention in pressurized water reactor (PWR) anticipated transient without scram (ATWS) analysis primarily due to the potential for reactor coolant system overpressurization. To assist in the licensing of the U.K. PWR, Sizewell ‘B’, comparative calculations of a loss-of-feedwater ATWS have been performed using the Westinghouse-developed LOFTRAN loop analysis code and the Electric Power Research Institute/Energy Incorporated-developed RETRAN-01 code. The calculations were performed with and without the emergency boration system (EBS), which is included in the Sizewell reference design. Initial results showed good agreement between the codes for the major features of the transient, but also a time shift in the transient profiles at the time of the pressurizer pressure peak. This was found to be due to differences in the steam generator modeling, which resulted in a difference in the onset of the very rapid degradation in heat transfer as the steam generators approach dryout. When the same model was used in both codes, very good agreement was obtained. Remaining differences in the results are attributed primarily to differences in the boron injection models, which resulted in an overprediction of the core boron concentration in the RETRAN calculation. The results with an EBS indicate that the peak pressurizer pressure is relatively insensitive to variations in modeling.