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Division Spotlight
Materials Science & Technology
The objectives of MSTD are: promote the advancement of materials science in Nuclear Science Technology; support the multidisciplines which constitute it; encourage research by providing a forum for the presentation, exchange, and documentation of relevant information; promote the interaction and communication among its members; and recognize and reward its members for significant contributions to the field of materials science in nuclear technology.
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!
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Latest News
NRC engineers share their expertise at the University of Puerto Rico
Robert Roche-Rivera and Marcos Rolón-Acevedo are licensed professional engineers who work at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. They are also alumni of the University of Puerto Rico–Mayagüez (UPRM) and have been sharing their knowledge and experience with students at their alma mater since last year, serving as adjunct professors in the university’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. During the 2023–2024 school year, they each taught two courses: Fundamentals of Nuclear Science and Engineering, and Nuclear Power Plant Engineering.
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.