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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.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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
First astatine-labeled compound shipped in the U.S.
The Department of Energy’s National Isotope Development Center (NIDC) on March 31 announced the successful long-distance shipment in the United States of a biologically active compound labeled with the medical radioisotope astatine-211 (At-211). Because previous shipments have included only the “bare” isotope, the NIDC has described the development as “unleashing medical innovation.”
Yoshitaka Chikazawa, Atsushi Katoh, Hiroyuki Hayafune, Yoshio Shimakawa, Yoshio Kamishima
Nuclear Technology | Volume 192 | Number 2 | November 2015 | Pages 111-124
Technical Paper | Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT14-151
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Severe external hazards on the Japan Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (JSFR) have been analyzed and evaluated. For seismic design, safety components are confirmed to maintain their functions even against recent strong earthquakes. Integrity of the major components has been confirmed covering recent earthquake conditions. In the case of a tsunami, the seawater pumps for the component cooling water system (CCWS) could be damaged by the tsunami, since they are located at sea level. In the JSFR design with full natural convection decay heat removal systems (DHRSs) and an air-cooling emergency gas turbine, safety-grade components are independent of CCWS, and loss of CCWS does not affect reactor cooling. As a conservative case, hypothetical station blackout (SBO) has been evaluated. In the case of SBO, decay heat is removed by natural convection DHRS, but control of the air cooler (AC) damper is lost after the battery power is out. The analysis has revealed that freezing at one of three ACs could happen due to loss of automatic control of AC dampers. However, the time margin to protected loss of heat sink is evaluated to be >10 days. Manual control of the AC damper is also investigated. Transient analyses show that the AC dampers can be controlled manually adopting a simple operation procedure with sufficient operation time. Decay heat cooling in the case of collapse in all air stacks of AC has been evaluated. The result shows that decay heat could be removed maintaining air paths in two of three ACs by accident management. In conclusion, JSFR in the 2010 design version has enough external hazard toughness mainly thanks to passive safety features and a seismic isolation system.