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
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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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May 2024
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Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Proving DRACO will deliver
The United States is now closer than it has been in over five decades to launching the first nuclear thermal rocket into space, thanks to DRACO—the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Orbit.
E. Studer, D. Abdo, S. Benteboula, G. Bernard-Michel, B. Cariteau, N. Coulon, F. Dabbene, Ph. Debesse, S. Koudriakov, C. Ledier, J.-P. Magnaud, O. Norvez, J.-L. Widloecher, A. Beccantini, S. Gounand, J. Brinster
Nuclear Technology | Volume 206 | Number 9 | September 2020 | Pages 1361-1373
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2020.1731406
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The containment of a nuclear reactor is a component whose loss in an accident has serious consequences on property, persons, and environment. The Fukushima accident reminded us of this reality. For more than 30 years, the French Nuclear Energy and Alternative Energies Commission has been conducting research on the failure modes of these enclosures, particularly on their slow pressurization during a steam release and hydrogen risk. Significant progress has been made on wall condensation and its spatial distribution, the occurrence and erosion of gas stratification, and the impact of mitigation systems, such as spraying and catalytic recombiners. This knowledge has been included in numerical tools and internationally recognized expertise. These tools have also been used for the safety of the hydrogen energy industry. The emergence of new systems, particularly passive systems and new light water reactor concepts, has led us to examine new questions that will have to be addressed in the coming years. This examination is done in view of current computational fluid dynamics code capabilities and limitations.