ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Division Spotlight
Education, Training & Workforce Development
The Education, Training & Workforce Development Division provides communication among the academic, industrial, and governmental communities through the exchange of views and information on matters related to education, training and workforce development in nuclear and radiological science, engineering, and technology. Industry leaders, education and training professionals, and interested students work together through Society-sponsored meetings and publications, to enrich their professional development, to educate the general public, and to advance nuclear and radiological science and engineering.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Apr 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
May 2025
Latest News
Argonne’s METL gears up to test more sodium fast reactor components
Argonne National Laboratory has successfully swapped out an aging cold trap in the sodium test loop called METL (Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop), the Department of Energy announced April 23. The upgrade is the first of its kind in the United States in more than 30 years, according to the DOE, and will help test components and operations for the sodium-cooled fast reactors being developed now.
Gary S. Was, Ronald Christensen, Chang Park, Richard W. Smith
Nuclear Technology | Volume 71 | Number 2 | November 1985 | Pages 445-457
Technical Paper | Nuclear Fuel | doi.org/10.13182/NT85-A33697
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A set of statistical patterns characterizing the conditions for failure of Type 304 stainless steel clad light water reactor fuel is formulated using a 450-assembly cycle data base from the Connecticut Yankee reactor and an information-theoretic (entropy) criterion of pattern formation. The pattern files, consisting of features formulated from output data obtained from the deterministic fuel performance code FCODE-BETA/SS, are partitioned into five failure and six nonfailure patterns. The failure probabilities of the patterns span the 0.17 to 37.47% range, as compared with the data base average of 2.86%. Features that contribute to failure patterns include large swings in the linear power at high burnup, frequent stress cycling at the ridge, and low coolant pH at high linear power. Contributing to nonfailure are low fission gas release, high axial uniformity in linear power, peak burnup, and clad creep strain at the ridge. The feature describing cycling of the linear power agrees qualitatively with previously identified factors contributing to failure of stainless steel clad fuel in the Connecticut Yankee reactor. From an operational standpoint, the fuel failure probability can be reduced by minimizing the number and magnitude of power ramps and maintaining a neutral coolant pH.