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2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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A webinar, and a new opportunity to take ANS’s CNP Exam
Applications are now open for the fall 2025 testing period for the American Nuclear Society’s Certified Nuclear Professional (CNP) exam. Applications are being accepted through October 14, and only three testing sessions are offered per year, so it is important to apply soon. The test will be administered from November 12 through December 16. To check eligibility and schedule your exam, click here.
In addition, taking place tomorrow (September 19) from 12:00 noon to 1:00 p.m. (CDT), ANS will host a new webinar, “How to Become a Certified Nuclear Professional.” More information is available below in this article.
V. D’Ambrosi, J. Sercombe, S. Bejaoui, A. Chaieb, B. Baurens, R. Largenton, A. Ambard, B. Boer, G. Bonny, M. Ševeček, L. E. Herranz, F. Feria Marquez, K. Inagaki, H. Ohta, F. Boldt, J. Sappl, R. Armstrong, A. Mohamad, Y. Udagawa, C. Cozzo, J. Klouzal, M. Vitezslav, J. Corson, J. Peltonen
Nuclear Technology | Volume 210 | Number 2 | February 2024 | Pages 189-215
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2023.2194270
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper presents the results of the Power To Melt and Maneuverability (P2M) Simulation Exercise on past fuel melting irradiation experiments, organized within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development/Nuclear Energy Agency Framework for IrraDiation ExperimentS (FIDES) framework by the Core Group (CEA, EDF, and SCK‧CEN) and open to all FIDES members. The exercise consisted in simulating two past power ramps where fuel melting was detected: (1) the xM3 staircase power transient [ramp terminal level (RTL) 70 kW‧m−1, average burnup 27 GWd‧tU−1], carried out in 2005 in the R2 reactor at Studsvik (Sweden), where the rodlet maintained its integrity, and (2) the HBC4 fast power transient (RTL 66 kW‧m−1, average burnup 48 GWd‧tU−1), carried out in 1987 in the BR2 reactor at SCK‧CEN (Belgium), where the cladding failed during the experiment. The exercise was joined by 13 organizations from 9 countries using 11 different fuel performance codes. In this paper, the main results of the Simulation Exercise are presented and compared to available postirradiation examinations (PIE) or on-line measurements during the power ramps (fuel and clad diameters, rod elongation, pellet-clad gap, and fission gas release). Since the focus of the Simulation Exercise is on fuel melting assessment, determination of the boundary between melted/nonmelted fuel and the consequent definition of a melting radius from PIE are first discussed. During the HBC4 ramp, fuel melting was predicted by most of the codes despite differences in the melting models. Higher discrepancies were observed for the xM3 rod that can be attributed partly to power uncertainty and partly to the limited capability of the models to describe partial melting of the fuel during this ramp. Finally, possible code developments to improve simulation results are presented.