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.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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
Sep 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
October 2025
Nuclear Technology
September 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
NNSA awards BWXT $1.5B defense fuels contract
The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration has awarded BWX Technologies a contract valued at $1.5 billion to build a Domestic Uranium Enrichment Centrifuge Experiment (DUECE) pilot plant in Tennessee in support of the administration’s efforts to build out a domestic supply of unobligated enriched uranium for defense-related nuclear fuel.
Nuclear Technology | Volume 93 | Number 1 | January 1991 | Pages 53-64
Technical Paper | Nuclear Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT91-A34518
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A postulated loss-of-residual heat removal (RHR) event for a reactor coolant system (RCS) in a midloop condition is analyzed for the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station (PVNGS) using the RETRAN-2/MOD4 computer code. The PVNGS is a Combustion Engineering, two-loop, 3800-MW(thermal) pressurized water reactor (PWR). This analysis was prompted by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission generic letter 88-17, which requires PWR licensees to perform analyses of loss-of-RHR events for their facilities. Such analyses yield a detailed understanding of loss-of-RHR events and provide a basis for emergency procedures and recovery actions. Simulations of events following a loss of RHR are used to determine the time for RCS coolant to reach boiling, evaluate the potential for a rapid core uncovery due to pressurization of the reactor ves sel head with a corresponding liquid ejection from a cold-leg breach, and evaluate options for maintaining the RCS inventory above the core. Key features of the PVNGS midloop condition RETRAN model include isolating both steam generators from the RCS by nozzle dams, setting the initial RCS inventory at midloop, venting the RCS to containment by removing the pressurizer safety relief valves, defining a maintenance breach on one cold leg, and providing options to evaluate makeup water injection to a hot or cold leg by either pump or gravity feed. The RETRAN model provides a satisfactory method for dynamically evaluating loss-of-RHR events from a reduced RCS inventory condition, and for evaluating alternative recovery actions for PVNGS.