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
Aerospace Nuclear Science & Technology
Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
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
Apr 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Geological work begins on Poland’s first nuclear plant
Project management firm Bechtel started site geological surveys for Poland’s first nuclear power plant project, the company announced on Wednesday.
Bechtel will conduct in-depth geological surveys at the Lubiatowo-Kopalino site in the Pomeranian municipality of Choczewo, in northern Poland. This is a key milestone for the country’s entry into nuclear power production, as the surveys will inform the suitability of the planned site.
Kazuki Kuwagaki, Jun Nishiyama, Toru Obara
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 191 | Number 2 | August 2018 | Pages 178-186
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2018.1463744
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In the breed and burn (B&B) strategy, low-reactivity fuels are loaded in a core. It is difficult to keep criticality in operating a small core. To enhance the potential for achieving criticality, the neutron economy in a core should be improved. One improvement method is to increase the core size and reduce neutron leakage. If it is necessary to avoid the large-sized core, another method is to locate high-reactivity fuels in high-neutron-importance region continuously through an equilibrium burnup state. On the other hand, to stabilize the change of neutron flux and power distribution during the operation, the B&B regions need to be kept stationary in the same region.
In this study, a rotational fuel-shuffling concept was proposed. In this concept, fuel assemblies are moved to the next position step by step in a divided symmetry core region. Fresh fuel is loaded from the periphery and moved toward the center region, then moved outward and discharged. If the core could achieve an equilibrium state at which high-reactivity fuels are continuously placed in the core center region, it would be possible to keep the B&B regions stationary. In this kind of equilibrium state, high-reactivity fuels are placed in high-neutron-importance region stably. Simulations for this concept were performed using the continuous-energy Monte Carlo code MVP/MVP-BURN. A small lead-bismuth-cooled fast reactor with metallic fuel was adopted as the core design. As a result, a core with rotational fuel shuffling achieved an equilibrium cycle at criticality, and the change of multiplication factors in the equilibrium cycle was less than 0.1%. The neutron flux and power distributions were almost unchanged during the operation. In addition, high-reactivity fuels were constantly placed in the high-neutron-flux region. It was found that this concept can achieve criticality and a stable power profile.