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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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Latest News
First astatine-labeled compound shipped in the U.S.
The Department of Energy’s National Isotope Development Center (NIDC) on March 31 announced the successful long-distance shipment in the United States of a biologically active compound labeled with the medical radioisotope astatine-211 (At-211). Because previous shipments have included only the “bare” isotope, the NIDC has described the development as “unleashing medical innovation.”
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.