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
Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
Meeting Spotlight
Conference on Nuclear Training and Education: A Biennial International Forum (CONTE 2025)
February 3–6, 2025
Amelia Island, FL|Omni Amelia Island Resort
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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February 2025
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Latest News
Feinstein Institutes to research novel radiation countermeasure
The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, home of the research institutes of New York’s Northwell Health, announced it has received a five-year, $2.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to investigate the potential of human ghrelin, a naturally occurring hormone, as a medical countermeasure against radiation-induced gastrointestinal syndrome (GI-ARS).
Rodolfo Vaghetto, Timothy Crook, Alessandro Vanni, Yassin A. Hassan
Nuclear Technology | Volume 193 | Number 1 | January 2016 | Pages 88-95
Technical Paper | Special Issue on the RELAP5-3D Computer Code | doi.org/10.13182/NT14-147
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
During a loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA), fibrous debris and other particles generated by the jet impingement may be transported to the sump, accumulate, or even penetrate through the strainers, reaching the reactor core. Pressure relief holes and other plant-specific features may provide alternative paths to the coolant under debris-generated core blockage scenarios and can play a major role in core coolability. A typical four-loop pressurized water reactor was modeled using RELAP5-3D to simulate the reactor system response during large-break LOCA scenarios under hypothetical full core blockage conditions. Pressure relief holes were included in the input model to study the effects of these alternative flow paths on the core coolability. The comparison of the simulation results obtained with two different models (with and without pressure relief holes) proved the effectiveness of these alternative flow paths in providing sufficient flow to the core to remove the decay heat during the long-term cooling phase, maintaining the cladding temperature sufficiently below the safety limits at any time after the core blockage occurred. The results presented in this paper not only confirmed the importance of including specific geometric features of the reactor system (generally neglected) when simulating core blockage scenarios but also provided evidence that even under certain extreme core blockage conditions, core coolability may still be guaranteed.