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.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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
Jul 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
August 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
July 2025
Latest News
Hash Hashemian: Visionary leadership
As Dr. Hashem M. “Hash” Hashemian prepares to step into his term as President of the American Nuclear Society, he is clear that he wants to make the most of this unique moment.
A groundswell in public approval of nuclear is finding a home in growing governmental support that is backed by a tailwind of technological innovation. “Now is a good time to be in nuclear,” Hashemian said, as he explained the criticality of this moment and what he hoped to accomplish as president.
Min-Ho Baek, Sang-Ji Kim, Jaewoon Yoo, In-Ho Bae
Nuclear Technology | Volume 183 | Number 3 | September 2013 | Pages 287-297
Technical Paper | Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-A19418
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The major roles of a prototype sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) planned to be developed at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute are (a) to provide an irradiation test capability for fuel and structural materials and (b) to obtain operational experience on the systems and components. The power level of the prototype SFR should be large enough to provide an appropriate irradiation test environment. Trade-off studies were therefore performed from a neutronics viewpoint to determine the power level. Specifically, core designs were performed for power levels of 125, 250, 400, and 500 MW(thermal). The selected core performance and economic efficiency indices became insensitive to the power at [approximately]400 to 500 MW(thermal) and sharply deteriorated at [approximately]125 to 250 MW(thermal) with decreasing core sizes. For the fuel management scheme, the transuranic (TRU) core performance compared with that of the uranium core, and the sodium void reactivity, were also evaluated with increasing power levels. It was found that increasing the number of batches shows a higher-burnup performance and economic efficiency. However, increasing the cycle length resulted in a lower economic efficiency. The irradiation performance of TRU and enriched TRU cores was improved by [approximately]20% and 50%, respectively. A maximum sodium void reactivity of 5.2 $ was confirmed as less than the design limit of 7.5 $. As a conclusion of our entire study, the power capacity of the prototype SFR should not be <250 MW(thermal), and would be appropriate at [approximately]500 MW(thermal) considering the performance and economic efficiency.