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Division Spotlight
Robotics & Remote Systems
The Mission of the Robotics and Remote Systems Division is to promote the development and application of immersive simulation, robotics, and remote systems for hazardous environments for the purpose of reducing hazardous exposure to individuals, reducing environmental hazards and reducing the cost of performing work.
Meeting Spotlight
ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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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Latest News
Discovering, Making, and Testing New Materials: SRNL’s Center For Hierarchical Waste Form Materials
Savannah River National Laboratory researchers are building on the laboratory’s legacy of using cutting-edge science to effectively immobilize nuclear waste in innovative ways. As part of the Center for Hierarchical Waste Form Materials, SRNL is leveraging its depth of experience in radiological waste management to explore new frontiers in the industry.
H. J. Uitslag-Doolaard, F. Alcaro, F. Roelofs, K. Zwijsen (NRG)
Proceedings | 2018 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2018) | Charlotte, NC, April 8-11, 2018 | Pages 945-954
The description of the “Dissymmetric Test” performed in the Phénix sodium fast reactor has recently become available as a blind benchmark for thermal-hydraulic modelling within the H2020 SESAME project. The transient consists of a largely asymmetric temperature distribution in the sodium pool resulting from a pump trip in one of the two intermediate circuits, followed by a reactor scram. Although this transient is particularly suitable to validate a 3-D Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model of the thermal-hydraulics in the sodium pool, the computational cost of a relatively long transient analysis with a full-scope CFD model of the whole Phénix reactor system would be huge. The present paper describes the system thermal-hydraulic (STH) model and the multiscale approach adopted by NRG for the simulation of the Dissymmetric Test. The in-house STH code SPECTRA was used to model the complete primary and secondary sides (intermediate loops) and explicitly coupled with the CFD code ANSYS CFX. The latter was used to resolve the details of the flow distribution inside the sodium pools, as well as at the outlet window of the primary side of the intermediate heat exchangers. An STH stand-alone simulation of the transient was carried out for comparison.