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.
Dragan Mirkovic, David J. Diamond
Nuclear Technology | Volume 95 | Number 2 | August 1991 | Pages 162-174
Technical Paper | Nuclear Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT91-A34554
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An accident sequence in a boiling water reactor is studied in which there is a large reactivity insertion caused by the flushing of borated water from the core. This sequence can occur during an anticipated transient without scram after the injection of borated water from the standby liquid control system. The boron shuts down the power, but if there is a rapid depressurization of the vessel (e.g., because of the inadvertent actuation of the automatic depressurization system), large amounts of low-pressure, relatively cold, unborated water enters the vessel causing a rapid dilution and cooling. This study determines whether the reactivity addition caused by this flushing could lead to a power excursion that is sufficient to cause catastrophic fuel damage. Calculations are carried out using the RELAP5/MOD2 computer code under different assumptions regarding timing and availability of lowpressure pumps and with different reactivity coefficients. The results show that the fuel enthalpy rise is insufficient to cause catastrophic fuel damage, although less severe fuel damage might still be possible from overheating of the fuel cladding.