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Division Spotlight
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
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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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.
Klaus Krompholz, Erik Bodmann, Günter K. H. Gnirss, Horst Huthmann
Nuclear Technology | Volume 66 | Number 2 | August 1984 | Pages 371-379
C.5. Fracture Mechanic | Status of Metallic Materials Development for Application in Advanced High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor / Material | doi.org/10.13182/NT84-A33440
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The prototype nuclear process heat plant and the high-temperature gas-cooled reactor need materials that can withstand temperatures up to 1223K (950°C). An elaboration of fracture mechanics concepts that holds for the complete temperature regime must consider all possible phenomena like creep damage and precipitation during exposure, etc. In tests on the Inconel-617, Hastelloy-X, and Nimonic-86 alloys with respect to fatigue crack growth, creep crack growth, and toughness (J integral R curves) up to 1273 K (1000°C), the first creep crack growth results were obtained in helium to compare with the air results. It was shown that pure fatigue crack growth behavior can be described by linear elastic fracture mechanics up to 1273 K. An example of Hastelloy-X at 1223 K proves that evaluating fatigue crack growth according to the J integral concept gives, within a small scatterband, the same results as by following the linear elastic concept. Hastelloy-X shows a decreasing fracture toughness with increasing temperatures. It is emphasized that the J integral concept holds only if creep deformation can be neglected. The experimental evidence at highest temperatures shows that the J integral R curve is not at all similar to that found at lower temperatures under ideal conditions. Creep crack growth for Nimonic-86 at 1073 ≤ T/K ≤ 1273 shows that crack growth at 1223 K in helium is found to be larger than in air. Problems arise when correlating the creep crack growth results. The application of the energy rate integral C* seems promising, but this has yet to be proven. A combination of long-term creep with fatigue crack growth is presently impossible.