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Division Spotlight
Young Members Group
The Young Members Group works to encourage and enable all young professional members to be actively involved in the efforts and endeavors of the Society at all levels (Professional Divisions, ANS Governance, Local Sections, etc.) as they transition from the role of a student to the role of a professional. It sponsors non-technical workshops and meetings that provide professional development and networking opportunities for young professionals, collaborates with other Divisions and Groups in developing technical and non-technical content for topical and national meetings, encourages its members to participate in the activities of the Groups and Divisions that are closely related to their professional interests as well as in their local sections, introduces young members to the rules and governance structure of the Society, and nominates young professionals for awards and leadership opportunities available to members.
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.
Antonino Romano, Neil E. Todreas
Nuclear Technology | Volume 139 | Number 1 | July 2002 | Pages 61-71
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT02-A3304
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Cylindrical fuel pins with wires are the design of choice for tightly packed fuel arrays. However, it is important to investigate novel fuel configurations in order to increase the thermal margins. Hence, new fuel designs have been studied for the epithermal option of the light water-cooled IRIS core. These designs are also of potential use in other tightly packed, epithermal advanced core designs.First, design equations have been used to determine number, height, and size of the principal features (clad, gap, fuel cross-sectional area) of the novel fuel configurations under investigation. Then, performance indices have been introduced to relate fuel geometrical characteristics to selected thermal-hydraulic parameters, such as pressure drop, critical heat flux (CHF), fuel centerline temperature, and clad surface temperature and stress distribution. Finally, variously shaped fuel configurations, including cylindrical, triangular, square, and hexagonal, have been ranked according to the performance indicators.The hexagonal fuel pins, both twisted and straight, proved to be good solutions for the epithermal tight core of the light water-cooled IRIS reactor, with performances comparable to those of the cylindrical fuel with wires. In particular, for water-to-fuel ratios ~0.33, the twisted hexagonal shape is the preferable design with a reduction of the total pressure drop by 16% and an increase of the CHF margin by 200%, compared to the traditional cylindrical pins with grids. Furthermore, the straight hexagonal shape allows flatter subchannel velocity profiles, wall shear stress, and wall temperature distributions. However, geometric constraints unfortunately do not allow application of the twisted hexagonal shape for smaller water-to-fuel ratios, which is a design regime of more favorable epithermal neutronics performance. In this regime, the cylindrical pins with wires are the solution of choice.