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
Thermal Hydraulics
The division provides a forum for focused technical dialogue on thermal hydraulic technology in the nuclear industry. Specifically, this will include heat transfer and fluid mechanics involved in the utilization of nuclear energy. It is intended to attract the highest quality of theoretical and experimental work to ANS, including research on basic phenomena and application to nuclear system design.
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
September 2024
Nuclear Technology
August 2024
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Taking shape: Fusion energy ecosystems built with public-private partnerships
It’s possible to describe fusion in simple terms: heat and squeeze small atoms to get abundant clean energy. But there’s nothing simple about getting fusion ready for the grid.
Private developers, national lab and university researchers, suppliers, and end users working toward that goal are developing a range of complex technologies to reach fusion temperatures and pressures, confounded by science and technology gaps linked to plasma behavior; materials, diagnostics, and electronics for extreme environments; fuel cycle sustainability; and economics.
Cesare Frepoli, Joseph P. Yurko, Ronaldo H. Szilard, Curtis L. Smith, Robert Youngblood, Hongbin Zhang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 196 | Number 2 | November 2016 | Pages 187-197
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NT16-66
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering a rulemaking that would revise requirements in 10 CFR 50.46 [also known as the emergency core cooling system (ECCS) rule]. Experimental work sponsored by the NRC suggested that the current regulatory acceptance criteria on ECCS performance during design-basis accidents are actually nonconservative for higher-burnup fuel, that embrittlement mechanisms not contemplated in the original criteria exist, and that the 17% limit on oxidation is not adequate to preserve the level of ductility that the NRC originally deemed to be warranted for adequate protection. The new rule imposes new acceptance criteria and is expected to be in effect within this decade. An implementation plan was developed that will give individual plants up to 7 years with which to comply once the rule is amended, depending on the status of each plant’s analysis of record, the effort involved, and existing analytical margin to the limits.
The proposed rule may challenge U.S. light water reactor fleet operational flexibility and economics. Within the U.S. Department of Energy Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program, the Idaho National Laboratory is pursuing an initiative that is focused on industry applications using Risk-Informed Safety Margin Characterization (RISMC) tools and methods applied to issues that are of current interest to the operating fleet. The mission of RISMC is to provide cost-beneficial approaches to safety analysis by leveraging modern methods, augmented tools (a combination of existing and new), and repurposed data (existing, but used in a new way).