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Division Spotlight
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
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
X-energy, Dow apply to build an advanced reactor project in Texas
Dow and X-energy announced today that they have submitted a construction permit application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a proposed advanced nuclear project in Seadrift, Texas. The project could begin construction later this decade, but only if Dow confirms “the ability to deliver the project while achieving its financial return targets.”
Shinji Matsushita, Masafumi Nojima (Hitachi), Takeshi Sakai, Tadashi Fujii (Hitachi-Ge Nuclear)
Proceedings | 2018 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2018) | Charlotte, NC, April 8-11, 2018 | Pages 1098-1104
Corium cooling system plays an important role to prevent the interaction between the molten corium and concrete of a pedestal region. As the material for constituting the corium cooling system, zirconia-based refractory materials are promising due to its high melting points and chemical stabilities. To estimate the erosion depth of the refractory material in the severe accidents, we developed an interaction model for molten corium and zirconia refractory material based on the erosion mechanism. Our developed model were based on two main phenomena; reduction reaction of the zirconia refractory material and oxygen diffusion in the zirconia. On the interface of the molten corium, oxygen in the zirconia are extracted by the reduction reaction. On the other hand, in the zirconia, oxygen are transferred to the interface according to Fick's laws of diffusion because the reduction reactions induce concentration gradient of oxygen in the zirconia. Thus, the erosion rate of the zirconia are governed by the reduction reaction and oxygen diffusion. We modeled the erosion behaviors as three phase: (1) just reduction reaction phase, (2) transitional erosion phase, (3) steady erosion phase. As a result, we found that our model grasp the trend of the erosion behaviors. As the future works, we require to investigate the temperature dependency of the reduction reaction rate to evaluate more accurately.
