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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.
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2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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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
Lightbridge announces first U-Zr fuel rod samples extruded at INL
Lightbridge Corporation announced today that it has reached “a critical milestone” in the development of its extruded solid fuel technology. Coupon samples using an alloy of zirconium and depleted uranium—not the high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) that Lightbridge plans to use to manufacture its fuel for the commercial market—were extruded at Idaho National Laboratory’s Materials and Fuels Complex.
James P. Blanchard, Qiyang Hu, Nasr Ghoniem
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 56 | Number 1 | July 2009 | Pages 341-345
High Average Power Laser and Other IFE R&D | Eighteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (Part 1) | doi.org/10.13182/FST09-A8925
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Dry wall laser IFE chambers will experience large, transient heat and particle fluxes as the target yield products reach the wall. These threats, consisting of x-rays, ions, and neutrons, can lead to wall failure caused by transient stresses or as a result of deposited ions in the near-surface layer. We have developed a unified model for the calculation of temperatures, stresses, strains, and fracture behavior in a solid IFE chamber wall. The model is also coupled with ion transport sub-models that assess the effects of ions on the morphology of the wall materials. This paper describes the models incorporated into the new unified simulation and, in particular, presents new fracture models that permit fracture calculations without the need for an advanced finite element calculation. This fracture model assumes that an array of surface cracks is present in the wall surface and uses superposition to calculate the stress intensity factor via a numerical integration of the stress profile computed for an un-cracked geometry. We also describe approaches for computing the stresses due to inertial effects resulting from the rapid heating associated with the IFE threats. In some cases, these inertial effects lead to stress waves that can lead to premature wall damage and must be accounted for in the analysis. This model is based on semi-analytical solutions for stress waves due to shallow heating in a relatively thick solid. The combined thermomechanical model gives us detailed understanding of the fundamental mechanics of rapidly heated surfaces.