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
Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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
Mar 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
April 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
February 2024
Latest News
Can hydrogen be the transportation fuel in an otherwise nuclear economy?
Let’s face it: The global economy should be powered primarily by nuclear power. And it probably will by the end of this century, with a still-significant assist from renewables and hydro. Once nuclear systems are dominant, the costs come down to where gas is now; and when carbon emissions are reduced to a small portion of their present state, it will become obvious that most other sources are only good in niche settings. I mean, why use small modular reactors to load-follow when they can just produce that power instead of buffering it?
A. Herrmann, B. Sieglin, M. Faitsch, ASDEX Upgrade Team
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 69 | Number 3 | May 2016 | Pages 569-579
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST15-187
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Monitoring the surface temperature of in-vessel components is part of machine protection. The surface temperature itself and the resulting temperature of the interface to the cooling structure have to be taken into account. The tolerated surface temperature is not a fixed quantity but depends on the heat load scenario. The interface temperature can be calculated by solving the heat diffusion equation and determining the temperature profile inside the target. Surface effects and parasitic radiation falsify the estimated temperature, which is higher than the real bulk temperature. From the machine protection point of view, the contributions are inherently safe. They might result in an early alarm, not justified by the target temperature itself reducing the tolerated operation range. Real-time characterization and quantification can be done by considering the temporal evolution of the measured surface temperature. This is recommended to be done by heat load calculation. Infrared (IR) systems under development allow one to calculate the heat load from the measured photon flux in real time. The impact of surface effects and parasitic radiation on the calculated temperature is dependent on wavelength. A suitable compromise for an IR system is a mid-wave IR system. It should be combined with a near-IR system for temperature validation at higher temperatures.