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
2026 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
Latest Magazine Issues
Jul 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
August 2026
Nuclear Technology
July 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
The deadline arrives: Checking in on the Reactor Pilot Program
On May 23, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14301, “Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing at the DOE,” which instructed the Department of Energy to create a Reactor Pilot Program (RPP)—a new system in which companies could pursue DOE authorization to build and test their first-of-a-kind nuclear technologies. EO 14301 set an ambitious goal for that program: three reactors achieving criticality by July 4, 2026.
Michael J. Zavisca, J. Michael Doster
Nuclear Technology | Volume 109 | Number 1 | January 1995 | Pages 76-86
Technical Paper | Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow | doi.org/10.13182/NT95-A35069
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Finite difference schemes currently applied to the modeling of two-phase flows in flow networks exhibit difficulties in properly simulating certain spatial and temporal discontinuities. These discontinuities include points along the one-dimensional flow axis where density and other thermophysical properties become discontinuous or experience rapid state domain changes. A methodology for treating spatial and temporal discontinuities is presented. This methodology consists of three main features: (a) subnode time-averaged do-noring of thermodynamic properties, (b) a variable pressure-at-discontinuity staggered mesh discretization, and (c) a variable point state equation linearization. The proposed scheme is similar in form to standard semi-implicit, staggered mesh discretizations, requires little extra overhead, and results in substantially improved accuracy and code execution times. Comparisons are made with standard time and spatial discretizations, as well as with two simpler alternate methods for recognizing and tracking discontinuities. The first of these attempts is to adjust the time-step size such that the fluid discontinuity arrives at a node boundary, or a change in fluid state occurs precisely at the end of a time advancement. The second attempts to redistribute mass and energy to correct for improperly donored values when a discontinuity crosses a node boundary during a time step. Neither of these alternatives proved adequate.