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Aerospace Nuclear Science & Technology
Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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.
Min Ho Lee (UNIST), Dong-Wook Jerng (Chung-Ang Univ), In Cheol Bang (UNIST)
Proceedings | 2018 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2018) | Charlotte, NC, April 8-11, 2018 | Pages 20-25
Reactor vessel auxiliary cooling system (RVACS) has been developed to make diverse safety system for sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR). In the loss of flow (LOF) accident condition, decay heat from the core is transferred to the reactor vessel by natural circulation inside of the sodium pool. The reactor vessel transfers its heat to the containment vessel by the conduction and radiation through the gap between the reactor vessel and the containment. Finally, the containment vessel releases its heat to the air flow from the atmosphere, which is the ultimate heat sink, by means of the RVACS. Although natural circulation of sodium is an important phenomenon because it determines the sodium boiling, it has not been sufficiently researched for the case of the RVACS. Therefore, in this study, natural circulation of the sodium in the LOF condition was analyzed experimentally to evaluate the maximum sodium temperature in the LOF. Water was used as a simulant for the sodium with the reduced scale. The experimental apparatus was scaled down about 1/25 by length, focusing on the modified Boussinesq number which represents the ratio of heat transfer by the natural circulation to the conduction. Because the modified Boussinesq number was the same with that of the actual reactor, overall temperature distribution in scale-downed apparatus with water would be similar to that of the sodium pool. Difference between the maximum and the minimum temperature of the water pool in the experiment was about 0.7oC, which corresponds to 5.1oC temperature difference of the sodium in LOF condition of an actual reactor with the operation of the RVACS. By comparing temperature difference
