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Division Spotlight
Thermal Hydraulics
The division provides a forum for focused technical dialogue on thermal hydraulic technology in the nuclear industry. Specifically, this will include heat transfer and fluid mechanics involved in the utilization of nuclear energy. It is intended to attract the highest quality of theoretical and experimental work to ANS, including research on basic phenomena and application to nuclear system design.
Meeting Spotlight
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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Latest News
Norway’s Halden reactor takes first step toward decommissioning
The government of Norway has granted the transfer of the Halden research reactor from the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) to the state agency Norwegian Nuclear Decommissioning (NND). The 25-MWt Halden boiling water reactor operated from 1958 to 2018 and was used in the research of nuclear fuel, reactor internals, plant procedures and monitoring, and human factors.
Hidehito Kinjo, Takeshi Kageyama, Akihiro Kitano, Shin Usami
Nuclear Technology | Volume 167 | Number 2 | August 2009 | Pages 254-267
Technical Paper | Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A8962
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A conceptual design study has been performed on upgrading the core performance of the Japanese fast breeder reactor (FBR) Monju. The main aim of this study is to investigate and demonstrate the feasibility of an upgraded core with an extended refueling interval of 365 equivalent full-power days and increased average fuel burnup of 150 GWd/t, which are expected in future commercial FBRs.Two main design measures have been taken to accommodate the largely increased burnup reactivity loss and the reactivity control characteristics for the 1-yr cycle operation: (a) A modified fuel pin specification with increased pin diameter, pellet density, and fissile height has been chosen to improve the burnup reactivity loss per extended cycle, and (b) the control rod specification has been modified to enhance the reactivity worth by increasing the 10B content to ensure sufficient shutdown margin.The major core characteristics that have been evaluated are the core power distribution, safety-related reactivities such as Doppler and sodium void effect, thermal hydraulics, and reactivity control characteristics. The results show that even a medium-sized upgraded core with a volume of [approximately]2.5 m3 could achieve the primary targeted performance of 1-yr cycle operation, without causing significant drawbacks to the core characteristics and safety aspects. The feasibility of the upgraded core concept has thus been demonstrated.