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Division Spotlight
Materials Science & Technology
The objectives of MSTD are: promote the advancement of materials science in Nuclear Science Technology; support the multidisciplines which constitute it; encourage research by providing a forum for the presentation, exchange, and documentation of relevant information; promote the interaction and communication among its members; and recognize and reward its members for significant contributions to the field of materials science in nuclear technology.
Meeting Spotlight
ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
Standards Program
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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March 2025
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February 2025
Latest News
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.
Mark T. Leonard
Nuclear Technology | Volume 62 | Number 1 | July 1983 | Pages 31-42
Technical Paper | Nuclear Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT83-A33229
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Upper head injection (UHI) is an emergency core coolant (ECC) system design that injects subcooled water into the upper head of the reactor vessel in a pressurized water reactor. An analysis has been performed that investigates the effects of UHI on small-break transient behavior. The analysis consists of several RELAP5/MOD1 computer code calculations, which have been compared to experimental data from a series of small break loss-of-coolant accident simulations, performed in the Semiscale Mod-2A system. Small-break transient phenomena were calculated not to be significantly affected by the introduction of subcooled liquid into the vessel upper head. Nonequilibrium effects were minimal and limited to the period of ECC injection. The analysis covered a range of small-break sizes, and the severity of the transients (in terms of minimum core coolant level) was calculated to be a maximum (with or without UHI) for a cold leg break size of ∼5.0% of the cold flow area. For all break sizes, UHI was calculated to increase the margin against core uncovery. The calculated hydraulic phenomena and specific fluid conditions were generally in good agreement with data. The calculated relative magnitudes of important phenomena were preserved over the break size spectrum.