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
Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
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.
Klaas Bakker, Rudy J. M. Konings
Nuclear Technology | Volume 115 | Number 1 | July 1996 | Pages 91-99
Technical Paper | Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow | doi.org/10.13182/NT96-A35278
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The thermal conductivity of UO2 is an important parameter in the design of nuclear fuel assemblies. The thermal conductivity can be reduced by radiation-induced porosity, leading to increased safety risks. In the literature, an analytical equation has been suggested to describe the influence of randomly ordered ellipsoidal porosity on thermal conductivity. However, in the case where the shape and the distribution of the pores is very complex, as in irradiated nuclear fuel, this equation is less well suited. The finite element method is introduced as a computational technique to take into account the influence of complex porosity structures on the thermal conductivity. Using the combination of image analysis and the finite element method, an equation has been obtained that describes the relation between the average elongated form of the pores and the overall thermal conductivity. Both the finite element method and image analysis are tools to estimate the thermal conductivity of high-burnup nuclear fuel.
