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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.
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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
Norway’s Halden reactor takes first step toward decommissioning
The government of Norway has granted the transfer of the Halden research reactor from the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) to the state agency Norwegian Nuclear Decommissioning (NND). The 25-MWt Halden boiling water reactor operated from 1958 to 2018 and was used in the research of nuclear fuel, reactor internals, plant procedures and monitoring, and human factors.
Jeffrey W. Lane, L. E. Hochreiter, D. L. Aumiller, Jr., R. J. Kushner
Nuclear Technology | Volume 161 | Number 3 | March 2008 | Pages 277-285
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT08-A3926
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
RELAP5-3D currently calculates two-phase pump degradation using the Aerojet Nuclear Corporation (ANC) model. This is an empirical model that relates two-phase pump performance to single-phase pump performance using a set of two-phase degradation multipliers, which are only a function of void fraction. The purpose of the present work was to assess the two-phase pump degradation model in RELAP5-3D and various sets of user-supplied two-phase degradation multipliers by modeling a full-scale, two-phase pump test facility and comparing the simulated results to experimental data. Tests conducted by Ontario Hydro Technologies (OHT) using a full-size CANDU reactor primary heat transport pump were used for this assessment. Presently, this work represents the only RELAP5-3D analysis of these tests that has been performed.The experimental data from the OHT tests and results of this assessment both indicate that there is a pressure effect, in addition to void fraction, that cannot be neglected by safety analysis codes when predicting two-phase pump performance. The RELAP5-3D results showed that the widely used Semiscale two-phase head degradation multipliers did a poor job of predicting the experimental data and utilizing pressure-specific two-phase head degradation multipliers developed by OHT significantly improved code-to-data agreement. These results identify both the inaccuracies of using the Semiscale two-phase degradation multipliers and a weakness in the present formulation of the ANC model. As a result of this work, the Idaho National Laboratory recognized the need to include a pressure dependence in the RELAP5-3D calculation of two-phase pump performance, and this capability will be available in the next release of the code.
