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
ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Apr 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2025
Nuclear Technology
April 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
General Kenneth Nichols and the Manhattan Project
Nichols
The Oak Ridger has published the latest in a series of articles about General Kenneth D. Nichols, the Manhattan Project, and the 1954 Atomic Energy Act. The series has been produced by Nichols’ grandniece Barbara Rogers Scollin and Oak Ridge (Tenn.) city historian David Ray Smith. Gen. Nichols (1907–2000) was the district engineer for the Manhattan Engineer District during the Manhattan Project.
As Smith and Scollin explain, Nichols “had supervision of the research and development connected with, and the design, construction, and operation of, all plants required to produce plutonium-239 and uranium-235, including the construction of the towns of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Richland, Washington. The responsibility of his position was massive as he oversaw a workforce of both military and civilian personnel of approximately 125,000; his Oak Ridge office became the center of the wartime atomic energy’s activities.”
Yassin A. Hassan, Wael A. Ibrahim
Nuclear Technology | Volume 119 | Number 1 | July 1997 | Pages 11-28
Technical Paper | Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow | doi.org/10.13182/NT77-A35391
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Turbulent flow is characterized by random fluctuations in the fluid velocity and by intense mixing of the fluid. A wide range of eddies exists in the flow field. Because these eddies carry mass, momentum, and energy, this enhanced mixing can sometimes lead to serious problems, such as tube vibrations in many engineering systems that include fluid-tube bundle combinations. Nuclear fuel bundles and pressurized water reactor (PWR) steam generators are existing examples of fluid-tube bundle combinations in nuclear power plants. One of the critical areas in PWR steam generators is the weld between the tubes and the tube plate. Fluid-induced vibration problems are often discovered during the operation of such systems because some of the fluid-tube interaction characteristics are not fully understood. Large-eddy simulation, incorporated in three-dimensional computer codes, became one of the promising techniques to estimate flow turbulence. An investigation of the complex flow turbulence in tube bundles was carried out. Simulation of flow across tube bundles with various pitch-to-diameter ratios was performed. Power spectral densities of drag and lift coefficients were used for comparison with experimental data. Estimation of flow-length scales and other important turbulence-related parameters were obtained. Finally, important characteristics of the turbulent flow field were presented with the aid offlow visualization, using both vector and vorticity plots and the flow paths of flow tracers embedded in the flow field.