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
Norway’s Halden reactor takes first step toward decommissioning
The government of Norway has granted the transfer of the Halden research reactor from the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) to the state agency Norwegian Nuclear Decommissioning (NND). The 25-MWt Halden boiling water reactor operated from 1958 to 2018 and was used in the research of nuclear fuel, reactor internals, plant procedures and monitoring, and human factors.
Hiroyuki Sato, Xing L. Yan, Yukio Tachibana, Kazuhiko Kunitomi, Yukitaka Kato
Nuclear Technology | Volume 185 | Number 3 | March 2014 | Pages 227-238
Technical Paper | Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-97
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The transient response of the high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) to depressurized loss of forced circulation combined with failure of all reactor trip systems, a beyond-design-basis accident, is analyzed for an extended period of time during which no active core cooling is resumed. The characteristic behavior of the reactor during the long-term conduction cooldown event is found to be shaped by several parameters that are usually not considered in the safety design of the HTGR. For example, while the Doppler effect is usually relied upon to provide inherent shutdown of the reactor, the reactivity coefficient of temperature of the graphite moderator is found to be a critical parameter for determining the final settling temperature of the fuel following the recriticality. Furthermore, this study finds that the peak fuel temperature reached during this event is correlated strongly even to the initial core operating temperature prior to the initiation of the transient event. These and other results of this study are expected to provide useful input to the development of enhanced safety design guidelines for commercial HTGRs in the aftermath of the Fukushima accident.