ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
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Division Spotlight
Thermal Hydraulics
The division provides a forum for focused technical dialogue on thermal hydraulic technology in the nuclear industry. Specifically, this will include heat transfer and fluid mechanics involved in the utilization of nuclear energy. It is intended to attract the highest quality of theoretical and experimental work to ANS, including research on basic phenomena and application to nuclear system design.
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
TerraPower begins U.K. regulatory approval process
Seattle-based TerraPower signaled its interest this week in building its Natrium small modular reactor in the United Kingdom, the company announced.
TerraPower sent a letter to the U.K.’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, formally establishing its intention to enter the U.K. generic design assessment (GDA) process. This is TerraPower’s first step in deployment of its Natrium technology—a 345-MW sodium fast reactor coupled with a molten salt energy storage unit—on the international stage.
Mark W. Wendel, David G. Morris, Paul T. Williams
Nuclear Technology | Volume 114 | Number 1 | April 1996 | Pages 51-67
Technical Paper | Nuclear Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT96-A35222
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Loss-of-coolant accident analyses have been completed for the High-Flux Isotope Reactor safety analysis report. More than 100 simulations have been performed using the RELAP5/MOD2.5 computer program. The RELAP5 input model used for the simulations is quite detailed, including 17 parallel channels in the core region, the three active heat exchanger cells, the pressurizing system, and the secondary cooling system. Special models are developed to represent the effects of shrinkage in the primary coolant pressure boundary and cavitation of the primary coolant pumps. Six locations in the primary coolant system are selected as pipe break sites to determine the worst-case scenario. At each of the locations, simulations are completed for a range of break diameters. The reactor is assumed to survive the transient as long as the hot-spot heat flux remains below the flow excursion limit. In addition to the baseline simulations, extensive parametric simulations are conducted to ensure that the modeling assumptions used are conservative. For a break diameter of 5.1 cm at any of the six locations in the system, the hot-spot heat flux remains beneath this limit, and furthermore, no boiling occurs in the fuel region. A summary table for all results is presented, and results are discussed in detail for the worst-case 5.1-cm break scenario.