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Division Spotlight
Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
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.
Ralf Wittmaack
Nuclear Technology | Volume 137 | Number 3 | March 2002 | Pages 194-212
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT02-A3268
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
To reduce the radiological consequences of postulated severe accidents, the design of future European nuclear reactors includes measures to avoid basemat penetration in case of a core meltdown. The considered retention schemes include a temporary retention of the debris in the reactor pit followed by the spreading of the accumulated molten corium with subsequent flooding and cooling.To contribute to the verification of such concepts, numerical simulations of the spreading process were performed with the CORFLOW code. These are based on an extensive verification and validation effort, i.e., the code has also been applied successfully to several flow, heat transfer, and phase transition problems of water, glycerol, cerrotru- (low-melting Bi-Sn alloy), and thermite- and corium-melts.Physical and numerical methods are described as well as code applications to analytical solutions, spreading experiments, and reactor corium-spreading processes.