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Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
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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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Nuclear News 40 Under 40 discuss the future of nuclear
Seven members of the inaugural Nuclear News 40 Under 40 came together on March 4 to discuss the current state of nuclear energy and what the future might hold for science, industry, and the public in terms of nuclear development.
To hear more insights from this talented group of young professionals, watch the “40 Under 40 Roundtable: Perspectives from Nuclear’s Rising Stars” on the ANS website.
J. Wang, H. J. Jo, M. L. Corradini
Nuclear Technology | Volume 204 | Number 1 | October 2018 | Pages 1-14
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2018.1464838
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Accident-tolerant fuel (ATF) cladding materials have been a focus of recent work to provide a greater resistance to fuel degradation, oxidation, and melting in light water reactors for beyond-design accident scenarios such as a station blackout (SBO). In a previous study, researchers at The University of Wisconsin–Madison used the Surry Nuclear Plant as the pilot plant to examine the effect of ATF substitute clad materials with the short-term SBO as the postulated accident, examining the effect of a loss of auxiliary feedwater (AFW) with the MELCOR systems code. In this work, we examine the effect of recovery actions for an SBO in Surry as a follow-on topic. Specifically, we selected two kinds of core cladding materials (Zircaloy and FeCrAl), and then conducted comparative analysis of the effect of water injection; first with a delay in water injection start times into the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) and then with steam generator (SG) steam-side AFW end times. We find that alternative cladding materials (FeCrAl) can effectively delay fuel degradation and system failures for both water injection strategies. One finds that RPV water injection can prevent such severe accident effects if restored in a few hours into the SBO. Conversely, SG steam-side AFW flow with alternative cladding materials (FeCrAl) can delay the fuel degradation and system failure processes by hours. We mainly focus on analyzing the severe accident progression by different quantitative signals, such as the onset of rapid hydrogen production, hot-leg creep rupture failure, and core slump. Analyses are now underway to consider the effects of proposed coating materials on Zircaloy cladding and if such coatings can afford similar benefits.