ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
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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
Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
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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Jul 2024
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Nuclear Science and Engineering
August 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
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.
Wang Kai, Xiaowei Jiao, Chuangxiong Cai, Zhaozhong He, Kun Chen (CAS)
Proceedings | 2018 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2018) | Charlotte, NC, April 8-11, 2018 | Pages 1199-1204
Direct auxiliary cooling system (DRACS) is one candidate for FHR (Fluoride-salt-cooled High temperature reactor) decay heat removal system. DRACS relies on buoyancy as the driving force to form natural circulation to remove the decay heat. As a passive engineered safety feature, some key parameters and models must be validated. In order to study the characteristics of the natural circulation of the molten salts, a high-temperature molten salt natural circulation experiment loop has been designed and constructed by the TMSR (Thorium Molten Salt Reactor) center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) with nitrate selected to be coolant. A series of experiments have been scheduled to be conducted on the loop, this loop could be used as a validation facility for DRACS. In this paper, steady-state natural circulation experiment results are shown. The results show that NNCL (nitrate natural circulation loop) was running steady and reliable, and the heat can be removed continuously. The RELAP5-MS code is employed to simulate NNCL behavior, and the simulation results coincide with experiment results. The modified RELAP5-MS can be used for the molten salt natural circulation system analysis. Based on these experiments and simulation results, the DRACS system can be used in the molten salt reactor as the decay heat removal system.