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Division Spotlight
Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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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Latest News
Securing the advanced reactor fleet
Physical protection accounts for a significant portion of a nuclear power plant’s operational costs. As the U.S. moves toward smaller and safer advanced reactors, similar protection strategies could prove cost prohibitive. For tomorrow’s small modular reactors and microreactors, security costs must remain appropriate to the size of the reactor for economical operation.
C. Tompkins, M. Corradini, M. Anderson
Nuclear Technology | Volume 196 | Number 2 | November 2016 | Pages 346-354
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NT16-26
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A research team at the University of Wisconsin has constructed a 1/4-scale experimental facility to study natural circulation cooling in an air-cooled reactor cavity cooling system (ARCCS) for decay heat removal. The ARCCS uses the principle of fluid buoyancy to induce a flow of air through multiple heated risers. This flow is used to remove decay heat from the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) by radiative and convective heat transfer to the risers that surround the RPV. During normal operation of a high-temperature reactor, this system is designed to protect the reactor cavity structures from excessive heat loads. The ARCCS experimental facility is equipped with new distributed temperature sensors designed by Luna Inc. The sensors are distributed optical fiber sensors that can measure a change in temperature from their initial state every 1.25 mm along a 10-m fiber at a maximum rate of 24 Hz. These fibers are standard communication-grade fibers, which are flexible and can be orientated in whatever shape needed to collect data, based on what the facility dictates. The standard available coatings can allow for continuous operation at temperatures of up to 300°C before degradation; however, the silica fiber itself can be taken as high as 700°C. The data from the fibers can be used to analyze the temperature distribution of the air in the ARCCS as it mixes and vents out of the system. The data produced from these fibers may prove to be useful for validation of the modeling of natural-circulation phenomena and the mixing of buoyancy-dominated flows with greater resolution.