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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.
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2024 ANS Winter Conference and Expo
November 17–21, 2024
Orlando, FL|Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld
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
NRC okays construction permits for Hermes 2 test facility
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced yesterday that it has directed staff to issue construction permits to Kairos Power for the company's proposed Hermes 2 nonpower test reactor facility to be built at the Heritage Center Industrial Park in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The permits authorize Kairos to build a facility with two 35-MWt test reactors that would use molten salt to cool the reactor cores.
Mingjun Wang, Annalisa Manera, Victor Petrov, Suizheng Qiu, Wenxi Tian, G. H. Su
Nuclear Technology | Volume 203 | Number 2 | August 2018 | Pages 194-204
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2018.1446656
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In detailed previous work by the authors, an innovative decay heat removal (DHR) system has been proposed and designed for the Integral Inherently Safe Light Water Reactor (I2S-LWR). The current paper studies the inadvertent actuation of one DHR system train during I2S-LWR normal operation due to a false signal or operator action. The RELAP5 code is used to perform a one-dimensional study, and important thermal-hydraulic characteristics, including primary loop coolant flow rate, pressure, temperature, DHR primary-side flow rate, and coolant temperature, are achieved during this transient. Then, a detailed computational fluid dynamics simulation utilizing STARCCM+ is carried out to investigate the coolant mixing characteristics in the downcomer and lower plenum and obtain the local thermal-hydraulic conditions at the reactor core inlet. It is found that as a consequence of inadvertent DHR actuation, the maximum overcooling at the reactor core inlet is about 3 K, which would not result in significant reactivity insertion. Furthermore, a more severe transient of inadvertent DHR operation with intermediate loop break is studied, and the results show that this would not lead to more significant overcooling to the I2S-LWR core compared with inadvertent DHR operation without intermediate loop break. This work is an indispensable supplement for DHR system comprehensive assessment in the I2S-LWR project.