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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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Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
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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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Constellation seeks rezone for property adjacent to Illinois plant
While no development details have been released, Constellation is asking to rezone 658.8 acres of land it owns around the Byron nuclear plant in Illinois for possible long-term use.
Jean-Baptiste Droin, Vincent Pascal, Paul Gauthe, Frédéric Bertrand, Gédéon Mauger (CEA)
Proceedings | 2018 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2018) | Charlotte, NC, April 8-11, 2018 | Pages 128-136
The present paper is dedicated to preliminary studies of the transient behavior of the ASTRID (Advanced Sodium Technological Reactor for Industrial Demonstration) demonstrator developed in France by CEA and its industrial partners. ASTRID is foreseen to demonstrate the progress made in Sodium Fast Reactor (SFR) technologies at an industrial scale by qualifying innovative options, some of which still remain open in the areas requiring improvements, especially safety and operability. Among the innovative options, a gas Power Conversion System (PCS) based on the Brayton thermodynamical cycle is currently considered. The main objective of such a PCS consists in physically avoiding the possibility of a sodium/water reaction with the secondary circuit.
To assess the transient behavior of such a PCS when facing incident/accident sequences, previous calculations were carried out using the CATHARE 2 thermal-hydraulics code, which considers by default the working gas as an ideal gas in its Equations Of States (EOS). However, this approximation is no longer valid for the high pressure levels of this Brayton cycle. This paper thus describes new calculations performed considering real gas EOS that are now available in CATHARE 3. The simulation of the nominal PCS working point is shown to be much more accurate than in previous CATHARE 2 calculations as the discrepancy regarding the theoretical working point is less than 1°C for the gas temperature and less than 1 % for all the components power levels (compressors, heat exchangers and turbines). The impact of this new real gas hypothesis in CATHARE 3 on an unprotected transient simulation has also been investigated on a loss of power supply case. For short time scales, the impact of such an hypothesis is demonstrated to be very low. However, an improvement of the heat extraction with the real gas option should enhance the natural convection in the primary circuit to the longer term.