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Division Spotlight
Young Members Group
The Young Members Group works to encourage and enable all young professional members to be actively involved in the efforts and endeavors of the Society at all levels (Professional Divisions, ANS Governance, Local Sections, etc.) as they transition from the role of a student to the role of a professional. It sponsors non-technical workshops and meetings that provide professional development and networking opportunities for young professionals, collaborates with other Divisions and Groups in developing technical and non-technical content for topical and national meetings, encourages its members to participate in the activities of the Groups and Divisions that are closely related to their professional interests as well as in their local sections, introduces young members to the rules and governance structure of the Society, and nominates young professionals for awards and leadership opportunities available to members.
Meeting Spotlight
Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
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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Nuclear Technology
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Latest News
Oklo completes end-to-end demonstration of advanced fuel recycling
Oklo Inc. has announced that it has completed the first end-to-end demonstration of its advanced fuel recycling process as part of an ongoing $5 million project in collaboration with Argonne and Idaho National Laboratories. Oklo’s goal: scaling up its fuel recycling capabilities to deploy a commercial-scale recycling facility that would increase advanced reactor fuel supplies and enhance fuel cost effectiveness for its planned sodium fast reactors.
Tatjana Jevremovic, Yoshiaki Oka, Sei-Ichi Koshizuka
Nuclear Technology | Volume 114 | Number 3 | June 1996 | Pages 273-284
Technical Paper | Fission Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT96-A35232
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The core design of a fast converter reactor adopting enriched UO2 fuel is studied for maximizing the power rating of the direct-cycle, supercritical water-cooled fast reactor with the same reactor pressure vessel as the breeder and mixed-oxide (MOX) fueled converter. The coolant void reactivity is kept negative by placing thin zirconium-hydride layers in the blanket fuel assemblies facing the driver fuels, as in our fast breeder reactor design. Compared with the fast converter adopting MOX fuel, the electric power output is increased 11%, from 1444 to 1625 MW(electric). It is attained by the reduced blanket fuel fraction for keeping negative reactivity at coolant voiding. The positive reactivity at flooding the core is much larger than that of the MOX core, but it can be managed by the control rod system. The conversion ratio, the surviving ratio, is 0.85, reduced 0.1 from that of the MOX converter. The enrichment of UO2fuel reaches 16.9%. The specific fissile inventory is the highest, compared with the MOX-fueled converter and breeder due to the lower fission cross sections of 235U. The cores of the supercritical water-cooled reactors are radially heterogeneous. The decoupling problem is, however, much smaller than that of the liquid-metal fast breeder reactor due to the smaller core diameter. The hydrogen loss from the zirconium hydrides at steady state and accidental conditions does not impose a problem.