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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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Latest News
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.
R. E. MacPherson, Jr., H. D. Stuart
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 12 | Number 2 | February 1962 | Pages 225-233
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE62-A26061
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Gas-cooled reactor systems can benefit from the use of internal metallic-foil insulations which take advantage of the relatively low thermal conductivity of the coolant gas itself. Tests have shown that, for design purposes, Nusselt, Grashof, and Prandtl number correlations for vertical gas spaces form a good basis for finding optimum foil spacing and for approximating insulation performance. Tests were conducted chiefly on a spirally wrapped foil arrangement in which in. spacing between adjacent foil turns was maintained by strips of corrugated sheet metal 1 in. in width. Results from this arrangement in an atmosphere of helium have shown gross effective thermal conductivity values to be approximately 150% of the values for the gas itself at pressures below 200 psia. From 200 psia to 1000 psia, conductivity increases with pressure to values approximately twice those for the gas itself. For the specific geometry tested effective conductivity was shown to be a function of mean insulation temperature, gas pressure, temperature gradient across the insulant, and insulation thickness.