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
Robotics & Remote Systems
The Mission of the Robotics and Remote Systems Division is to promote the development and application of immersive simulation, robotics, and remote systems for hazardous environments for the purpose of reducing hazardous exposure to individuals, reducing environmental hazards and reducing the cost of performing work.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Apr 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2025
Nuclear Technology
April 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Norway’s Halden reactor takes first step toward decommissioning
The government of Norway has granted the transfer of the Halden research reactor from the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) to the state agency Norwegian Nuclear Decommissioning (NND). The 25-MWt Halden boiling water reactor operated from 1958 to 2018 and was used in the research of nuclear fuel, reactor internals, plant procedures and monitoring, and human factors.
Dov Ingman, Leib Reznik
Nuclear Technology | Volume 74 | Number 3 | September 1986 | Pages 243-259
Technical Paper | Fission Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT86-A33827
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A multicomponent system, specified by a high level of power generation and transformation as a thermodynamics system with strong interaction between the elements, is considered in the reliability analysis. The reliability of each system element is dependent on the average energy of the system. The approach, which aims to give proper consideration to the system / element interaction, is based on the energy accumulation aspects of various processes of the element and the system deterioration. The phenomena of coherent blockages of core coolant channels for different geometrical configurations serve to demonstrate that there exists, in principle, a possibility of failure of the system through cooperative failures of its elements. The investigation is based on statistical thermodynamics, particularly on the approach of “phase transitions,” and also on the percolation theory results. The developed model has been employed to evaluate the propagation rate of the subchannel blockages under critical conditions. In spite of the simplified character of the model, it has demonstrated the necessity of including consideration of collective phenomena in the reliability analysis of multicomponent systems characterized by a high power level. The developed approach permits construction of a minimum set of generalized system parameters that describe the critical system behavior. A quantitative determination of these parameters and an application of the model to specific reactor core designs and severe transient scenarios will be the subject of further investigation.