ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Division Spotlight
Nuclear Criticality Safety
NCSD provides communication among nuclear criticality safety professionals through the development of standards, the evolution of training methods and materials, the presentation of technical data and procedures, and the creation of specialty publications. In these ways, the division furthers the exchange of technical information on nuclear criticality safety with the ultimate goal of promoting the safe handling of fissionable materials outside reactors.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Apr 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2025
Nuclear Technology
April 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
First astatine-labeled compound shipped in the U.S.
The Department of Energy’s National Isotope Development Center (NIDC) on March 31 announced the successful long-distance shipment in the United States of a biologically active compound labeled with the medical radioisotope astatine-211 (At-211). Because previous shipments have included only the “bare” isotope, the NIDC has described the development as “unleashing medical innovation.”
Ji-Hwan Hwang (Chung-Ang Univ), Min Ho Lee, In Cheol Bang (UNIST), Dong-Wook Jerng (Chung-Ang Univ)
Proceedings | 2018 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2018) | Charlotte, NC, April 8-11, 2018 | Pages 650-656
A concept of the ERVC (External Reactor Vessel Cooling) can be applied to the Sodium Fast Reactor (SFR), by using air instead of water as a coolant. The RVCS, which is a system to maintain integrity of concrete structures, can be used for reactor exterior surface cooling. The heat removal by RVCS operation affects and affected by the natural circulation inside sodium pool. Thus, understanding the natural circulation inside sodium pool is important for RVCS performance prediction. In this paper, we numerically investigated similarity laws to figure out the applicability of water tests to actual sodium condition using a commercial CFD code, STAR-CCM+. In this study, 4 different scales, 1/20, 1/10, 1/8 and 1/5 were investigated. In every case the volumetric heat flux of core was identical. For numerical simulation, the geometry and configuration of Prototype Gen-IV Sodium Cooled Fast Reactor (PGFSR) developed in KAERI is chosen as reference, and modeled. For comparison, each similarity laws were compared in terms of temperature field. The simulation and comparison results show that by preserving modified Bousinessq number and Peclet number when reducing the test, the temperature field of reactor can be reproduced. However, the test is too small, the flow resistance due to internal structure acts dominantly, disturbing the flow. Therefore, for better result, such flow resistance which can be occurs at small-scaled experiment, should be taken into account.