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Nuclear Installations Safety
Devoted specifically to the safety of nuclear installations and the health and safety of the public, this division seeks a better understanding of the role of safety in the design, construction and operation of nuclear installation facilities. The division also promotes engineering and scientific technology advancement associated with the safety of such facilities.
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2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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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
Commercial nuclear innovation "new space" age
In early 2006, a start-up company launched a small rocket from a tiny island in the Pacific. It exploded, showering the island with debris. A year later, a second launch attempt sent a rocket to space but failed to make orbit, burning up in the atmosphere. Another year brought a third attempt—and a third failure. The following month, in September 2008, the company used the last of its funds to launch a fourth rocket. It reached orbit, making history as the first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to do so.
M. Hadj-Nacer, T. Manzo, M. T. Ho, I. Graur, M. Greiner
Nuclear Technology | Volume 194 | Number 3 | June 2016 | Pages 387-399
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NT15-82
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A two-dimensional computational model of a loaded used nuclear fuel canister filled with dry helium gas was constructed to predict the cladding temperature during vacuum-drying conditions. The model includes distinct regions for the fuel pellets, cladding, and helium within each basket opening, and it calculates the conduction heat transfer within all solid components, heat generation within the fuel pellets, and conduction and surface-to-surface radiation across the gas-filled regions. First, steady-state simulations are performed to determine peak clad temperatures as a function of the fuel heat generation rate, assuming the canister is filled with atmospheric pressure helium. The allowable fuel heat generation rate, which brings the peak clad temperature to its limit, is evaluated. The discrete velocity method is then used to calculate slip-regime rarefied gas conduction across planar and cylindrical helium-filled gaps. These results are used to verify the Lin-Willis solid-gas interface thermal resistance model for a range of thermal accommodation coefficients α. The Lin-Willis model is then implemented at the solid-gas interfaces within the canister model. Finally, canister simulations with helium pressures of 100 and 400 Pa and α = 1, 0.4, and 0.2 are performed to determine how much hotter the fuel cladding is under vacuum-drying conditions compared to atmospheric pressure. For α = 0.4, the fuel heat generation rates that bring the clad temperature to its allowed limit for helium pressures of 400 and 100 Pa are reduced by 10% and 25%, respectively, compared to atmospheric pressure conditions. Transient simulations show that the cladding reaches its steady-state temperatures ~20 to 30 h after water is removed from the canister.