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Young Members Group
The Young Members Group works to encourage and enable all young professional members to be actively involved in the efforts and endeavors of the Society at all levels (Professional Divisions, ANS Governance, Local Sections, etc.) as they transition from the role of a student to the role of a professional. It sponsors non-technical workshops and meetings that provide professional development and networking opportunities for young professionals, collaborates with other Divisions and Groups in developing technical and non-technical content for topical and national meetings, encourages its members to participate in the activities of the Groups and Divisions that are closely related to their professional interests as well as in their local sections, introduces young members to the rules and governance structure of the Society, and nominates young professionals for awards and leadership opportunities available to members.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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General Kenneth Nichols and the Manhattan Project
Nichols
The Oak Ridger has published the latest in a series of articles about General Kenneth D. Nichols, the Manhattan Project, and the 1954 Atomic Energy Act. The series has been produced by Nichols’ grandniece Barbara Rogers Scollin and Oak Ridge (Tenn.) city historian David Ray Smith. Gen. Nichols (1907–2000) was the district engineer for the Manhattan Engineer District during the Manhattan Project.
As Smith and Scollin explain, Nichols “had supervision of the research and development connected with, and the design, construction, and operation of, all plants required to produce plutonium-239 and uranium-235, including the construction of the towns of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Richland, Washington. The responsibility of his position was massive as he oversaw a workforce of both military and civilian personnel of approximately 125,000; his Oak Ridge office became the center of the wartime atomic energy’s activities.”
Chang H. Oh, Hong S. Lim, Eung S. Kim
Nuclear Technology | Volume 166 | Number 1 | April 2009 | Pages 101-112
Technical Paper | Special Issue on Nuclear Hydrogen Production, Control, and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A6972
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The very high temperature gas-cooled reactor (VHTR) is envisioned as a single- or dual-purpose reactor for electricity and hydrogen generation. The concept has average coolant temperatures above 1173 K (900°C) and operational fuel temperatures above 1523 K (1250°C). The concept provides the potential for increased energy conversion efficiency and for high-temperature process heat application in addition to power generation. While all the high-temperature gas-cooled reactor concepts have sufficiently high temperatures to support process heat applications, such as hydrogen production, tar sands, oil shale, desalination, or cogenerative processes, the VHTR's higher temperatures can be detrimental to safety if a loss-of-coolant accident occurs and causes the mechanical strength degradation of the supporting graphite in the lower plenum. Following the loss of coolant through the break and coolant depressurization, air will enter the core through the break by molecular diffusion or density-gradient-driven stratified flow phenomena and ultimately by natural convection, leading to oxidation of the in-core graphite structure and fuel. The oxidation will accelerate heatup of the reactor core and the release of toxic gases (CO and CO2) and fission products. Thus, without any effective countermeasures, a pipe break may lead to significant fuel damage and fission product release. Therefore, there was a need to develop a computer code that can be used for VHTR air ingress-related graphite oxidation analyses. Prior to the start of the Republic of Korea/United States International Nuclear Energy Research Initiative collaboration, no computer codes were available that had been sufficiently developed and validated to reliably simulate an air ingress phenomenon in the VHTR. Therefore, we have worked for the past 3 yr on developing and validating advanced computational methods for simulating air ingress in the VHTR. The Idaho National Laboratory is developing a system integration model of VHTR and hydrogen production plant. GAMMA code is being considered to be an integrated computer tool to analyze the thermal hydraulics of the coupled plant. Computer models for a high-temperature steam electrolysis (HTSE) process were developed and were implemented in an overall system process optimization code, HYSYS. The HTSE model will be implemented into GAMMA code as the integrated computer tool.This paper describes the governing equations and numerical methods used in GAMMA code and presents a portion of verification of the GAMMA code along with turbomachinery models and HTSE models that will be linked to GAMMA code.
