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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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Commercial nuclear innovation "new space" age
In early 2006, a start-up company launched a small rocket from a tiny island in the Pacific. It exploded, showering the island with debris. A year later, a second launch attempt sent a rocket to space but failed to make orbit, burning up in the atmosphere. Another year brought a third attempt—and a third failure. The following month, in September 2008, the company used the last of its funds to launch a fourth rocket. It reached orbit, making history as the first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to do so.
M. A. Shinaishin, M. A. Abolfadl, A. S. Khedr, M. M. Kamel
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 136 | Number 3 | November 2000 | Pages 376-387
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE00-A2166
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This work aims at simulating steam Zircaloy clad interaction in a wide range of temperatures extending to those expected in severe accident conditions of nuclear power plant light water reactors. The equations governing interaction variables for a two-layer (-oxide) and three-layer (--oxide) structure are analytically solved for a semi-infinite and for a finite metal thickness. This method has great computational advantages (small calculation time with no divergence problem) compared with the numerical solution methods, and it can be accurately applied at high temperatures and for finite metal thickness compared to published parabolic correlations, which yield large deviations from experimental data at these conditions. Variables such as oxidation rates, steam consumption, hydrogen generation, and heat released due to oxidation are very important in identifying reactor core degradation scenarios. We thus focused on predicting them as accurately as possible. The predicted oxidation rates at constant temperatures and under constant heating rates are compared with available experimental data for Zircaloy-4, and good agreements were observed. The results reflect the importance of the oxidation heat generation as a heat source in severe accidents knowing that the reactor core contains large quantities of structural metals.