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
Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Jul 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
August 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Vogtle-3 shuts down for valve issue
One of the new Vogtle units in Georgia was shut down unexpectedly on Monday last week for a valve issue that has been investigated and repaired. According to multiple local news outlets, Georgia Power reported on July 17 that unit 3 was back in service.
Southern Company spokesperson Jacob Hawkins confirmed that Vogtle-3 went off line at 9:25 p.m. on July 8 “due to lowering water levels in the steam generators caused by a valve issue on one of the three main feedwater pumps.”
Frank Wols, Jan Leen Kloosterman, Danny Lathouwers, Tim Van Der Hagen
Nuclear Technology | Volume 186 | Number 1 | April 2014 | Pages 1-16
Technical Paper | Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-14
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An inherently safe thorium-breeder pebble bed reactor has great potential to improve the safety and sustainability of nuclear energy. The aim of this work is to determine the conditions under which breeding is possible in a thorium-breeder pebble bed reactor (PBR) and to present possible core designs for such a reactor. A method is developed to calculate the equilibrium core configuration of a thorium-breeder PBR, consisting of a driver channel and a breed channel. The SCALE system is used for cross-section generation and fuel depletion, and a two-dimensional (r,z)-flux profile is obtained using the DALTON neutron diffusion code. With the code scheme, the influence of several geometrical, operational, and fuel management parameters on breeding capability can be studied. Four fuel reprocessing schemes are investigated. The first scheme recycles breeder pebbles into the driver channel after some delay for additional 233Pa decay. The second scheme reprocesses the discharged breeder pebbles to make driver pebbles with higher 233U content. The third scheme also reprocesses the uranium isotopes from the discharged driver pebbles. Criticality, and thus breeding, can only be achieved in practice for this case. The fourth scheme, which adjusts the driver pebble residence time to find a critical core, is used to design a thorium-breeder PBR under practical operating conditions. A breeder reactor can even be achieved for a 150-cm core diameter, the same as for the uranium-fueled HTR-PM, but the design presented operates at a significantly lower reactor power, 71 MW(thermal) compared with 250 MW(thermal).