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
Aerospace Nuclear Science & Technology
Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
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
Argonne’s METL gears up to test more sodium fast reactor components
Argonne National Laboratory has successfully swapped out an aging cold trap in the sodium test loop called METL (Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop), the Department of Energy announced April 23. The upgrade is the first of its kind in the United States in more than 30 years, according to the DOE, and will help test components and operations for the sodium-cooled fast reactors being developed now.
James A. Turso, Robert M. Edwards, Jose March-Leuba
Nuclear Technology | Volume 110 | Number 1 | April 1995 | Pages 132-144
Nuclear Reactor Safety | Burnup Credit | doi.org/10.13182/NT95-A35102
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A “hybrid” reactor /simulation (HRS) testing arrangement has been developed and experimentally verified using The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) TRIGA Reactor. The HRS uses actual plant components to supply key parameters to a digital simulation (and vice versa). To implement the HRS on the Penn State TRIGA reactor, an experimental or secondary control rod drive mechanism is used to introduce reactivity feedback effects that are characteristic of a boiling water reactor (BWR). The simulation portion of the HRS provides a means for introducing reactivity feedback caused by voiding via a reduced order thermal-hydraulic model. With the model bifurcation parameter set to the critical value, the nonlinearity caused by the neutronic-simulated thermal/hydraulic coupling of the hybrid system is evident upon attaining a limit cycle, thereby verifying that these effects are indeed present. The shape and frequency of oscillation (∼0.4 Hz) of the limit cycles obtained with the HRS are similar to those observed in operating commercial BWRs. A control or diagnostic system specifically designed to accommodate (or detect) this type of anomaly can be experimentally verified using the research reactor based HRS.
