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
Nuclear Criticality Safety
NCSD provides communication among nuclear criticality safety professionals through the development of standards, the evolution of training methods and materials, the presentation of technical data and procedures, and the creation of specialty publications. In these ways, the division furthers the exchange of technical information on nuclear criticality safety with the ultimate goal of promoting the safe handling of fissionable materials outside reactors.
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
May 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
PPPL study points to better fusion plasma control
The combination of two previously known methods for managing plasma conditions can result in enhanced control of plasma in a fusion reactor, according to a simulation performed by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.
Dennis Youchison, Charles Kessel, Paul Nogradi
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 79 | Number 3 | April 2023 | Pages 222-250
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2022.2123683
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Advances in high-performance computing now enable the engineering evaluation of large blanket components from a systems perspective at the beginning of a normal design cycle. As an example, we discuss the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) involved in characterizing the thermal performance of an entire 22.5 toroidal sector of a dual-coolant lead-lithium blanket with particular attention to the integrated manifolding and flow distributions. The inboard sector is roughly 7 m tall, has 321 first-wall helium-cooled channels, and five parallel PbLi breeder channels complete with insulating SiC flow channel inserts. A finite volume model was developed with various degrees of mesh refinement from 36 to 187 million cells to perform the flow calculations on disparate fluids with conjugate heat transfer in the solid. Steady-state CFD calculations were performed using a realizable k-ε turbulence model. Simplifications include a uniform applied surface heat flux and a one-dimensional radial volumetric neutron heating profile. Constant material properties were used for the F82H reduced-activation ferritic martensitic (RAFM) steel walls, SiC flow channel inserts, and the PbLi breeder. Ideal gas behavior was assumed for the helium, which includes compressibility. Helium mass flows of 54 kg/s at 8 MPa and PbLi flows of 3 kg/s at 101 kPa supply the sector, both at an inlet temperature of 350°C.
This early model is not optimized; however, it reveals important features not obvious in a conglomeration of smaller independent models. For example, all the manifolding was included to evaluate flow distributions throughout the full component. Submodels were only used to obtain the convective heat transfer coefficients (HTCs) inside the helium first-wall channels equipped with enhancement vanes that allow the first wall to handle 0.8 MW/m2 of plasma heat flux with the aim of keeping bulk RAFM steel temperatures near the creep-fatigue limit of 550°C. Average HTCs obtained from these detailed submodels were then used in the large model to predict thermal performance without incurring the meshing overhead from the thousands of internal vanes. Although much progress was made, initial results indicate that more must be done to further reduce hot spots on the first wall, minimize pressure drops, and provide optimal flow distributions.