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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
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!
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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?
Wolfgang Hohenauer, Harald Bolt, Jochen Linke, Werner K. W. M. Malléner
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 34 | Number 1 | August 1998 | Pages 18-27
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST98-A50
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
To investigate the erosion and redeposition phenomena of fusion-related materials under stationary conditions, actively cooled test limiters were developed for the Tokamak Experiment for Technology Oriented Research (TEXTOR). The test limiters allow experiments under stationary conditions within a plasma pulse length of 10 s. Heat loads of typically 10 MW/m2 are removed by pressurized water; the volume flow is 10 m3/h, the pressure is 15 bar, and the minimum coefficient of heat transfer is nearly 70 000 W/m2K. The limiters were manufactured as low-pressure plasma-spraying thermally sprayed tungsten-coated heat sinks made of the molybdenum alloy TZM. The required properties of the tungsten coating were developed by the use of a statistically based optimization routine. Optimized, actively cooled limiters were successfully tested in Forschungszentrum Jülich's Material Research Ion Beam Test Facility (MARION) with hydrogen beams. Maximum heat loads of up to ~17 MW/m2 were applied without any failure of either the heat sink or the cooling system. The steady state of the surface temperature was measured within 2 s. Analytical and numerical models describing the effects of heat load distribution and spatial temperatures were found to be in excellent agreement with numerical predictions. In an additional experiment, loss of coolant was simulated. Transition boiling was generated, and after repeated heat loads higher than 10 MW/m2, cavitational damage of the heat sink occurred. Concerning the material selection for heat sinks of hypervapotrons and other cooling systems based on enhanced boiling of the cooling liquid, this result might be of special interest.