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
Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
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
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.
Kaushik Chatterjee, Mohammad Modarres
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 170 | Number 2 | February 2012 | Pages 136-150
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE11-27
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In probabilistic safety assessments of pressurized water reactors, it is imperative to assess the potential and frequency of steam generator tube ruptures. Estimation of the frequency of steam generator tube ruptures has traditionally been based on historical occurrences, which are not applicable to new designs of steam generators with different geometries, material properties, degradation mechanisms, and thermal-hydraulic behaviors. This paper presents a new probabilistic mechanistic-based approach for estimating steam generator tube rupture frequency that is based on the principle that the failure of passive systems is governed by degradation or unfavorable conditions created through the underlying operating conditions and underlying mechanical, electrical, thermal, and chemical processes. This developed approach identifies, probabilistically models, and simulates potential degradations in new and existing steam generator designs to assess degradation versus time, until such degradation exceeds a known endurance limit. An example application of the proposed reliability prediction approach is presented for a new design of small modular reactor steam generators consisting of helically coiled tubes fabricated with advanced tube materials. This developed probabilistic physics-of-failure-based approach, when combined with probabilistic safety assessment techniques, can provide an effective tool for the evaluation of the safety and reliability of steam generators, particularly new steam generator designs used in advanced reactors.