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Division Spotlight
Nuclear Installations Safety
Devoted specifically to the safety of nuclear installations and the health and safety of the public, this division seeks a better understanding of the role of safety in the design, construction and operation of nuclear installation facilities. The division also promotes engineering and scientific technology advancement associated with the safety of such facilities.
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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.
Takehiko Nakamura, Kazuyuki Kusagaya, Toyoshi Fuketa, Hiroshi Uetsuka
Nuclear Technology | Volume 138 | Number 3 | June 2002 | Pages 246-259
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT02-A3292
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Boiling water reactor (BWR) fuel at 56 to 61 GWd/tonne U was pulse irradiated in the Nuclear Safety Research Reactor (NSRR) to investigate fuel behavior under cold startup reactivity-initiated accident conditions. Current Japanese 8 × 8 type Step II BWR fuel from Fukushima Daini Unit 2 was refabricated to short segments, and thermal energy from 272 to 586 J/g (65 to 140 cal/g) was promptly inserted to the test rods. Cladding deformation of the BWR fuel by the pulse irradiation was smaller than that of pressurized water reactor (PWR) fuels. However, cladding failure occurred in tests with fuel at burnup of 61 GWd/tonne U at fuel enthalpies of 260 to 360 J/g (62 to 86 cal/g) during the early stages of transients, while the cladding remained cool. The failure was comparable to the one observed in high-burnup PWR fuel tests, in which embrittled cladding with dense hydride precipitation near the outer surface was fractured due to pellet cladding mechanical interaction. Transient fission gas release by the pulse irradiation was ~9.6 to 17% depending on the peak fuel enthalpy.