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
Radiation Protection & Shielding
The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
Meeting Spotlight
Conference on Nuclear Training and Education: A Biennial International Forum (CONTE 2025)
February 3–6, 2025
Amelia Island, FL|Omni Amelia Island Resort
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
Jan 2025
Jul 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
January 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Christmas Night
Twas the night before Christmas when all through the houseNo electrons were flowing through even my mouse.
All devices were plugged in by the chimney with careWith the hope that St. Nikola Tesla would share.
Thomas Moore, Mike Steer, Marco Delchini, Mathieu Martin, Brian Woods
Nuclear Technology | Volume 206 | Number 6 | June 2020 | Pages 862-894
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2019.1667186
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In support of the restart of the Transient Reactor Test (TREAT) Facility at the Idaho National Laboratory, an analysis of a historic sodium loop experiment is performed. With the aging of the data and the beginning of a new campaign of transient testing, it is an ideal time to perform a modern analysis of a previously successful transient testing campaign. This work investigates many prior tests and ranks these tests for desirability of analysis using modern computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools. Once the testing data were collected, necessary drawings were used to build a three-dimensional model of the test loop for CFD analysis. This geometry was then used to perform a multi-resolution analysis of the test loop. Three different resolution analyses were performed: a macroscale analysis detailing average flow characteristics in the test section using STAR-CCM+, a more refined analysis that investigated the thermal profile within the test section in more detail using STAR-CCM+, and a fine-mesh analysis that aims to lend credibility to the turbulence modeling performed in the lower-resolution analyses using Nek5000. The main goal was to show the feasibility of using modern computational tools for experiments performed at TREAT. With this analysis performed, a methodology has been outlined for future work to follow when analyzing the data from future TREAT tests. The more refined STAR-CCM+ analysis showed the best results when compared with data, showing that simulating the solid structures is an important feature of the analysis.