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
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
Mar 2026
Jan 2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
April 2026
Nuclear Technology
February 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Project Matador joins EIS pilot program; NRC seeks public input
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has released a notice of intent to conduct a scoping process and prepare an environmental impact statement to evaluate Fermi America’s plan to construct and operate four AP1000 reactors at its Project Matador Advanced Energy and Intelligence Campus in Texas.
While that announcement may seem routine, the process envisioned is not. As part of the company’s combined license (COL) application with the NRC, it has agreed to participate in an accelerated environmental review pilot program under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Under this pilot, the applicant(s) develop a draft EIS under NRC supervision.
Olivier Auban, Domenico Paladino, Robert Zboray
Nuclear Technology | Volume 148 | Number 3 | December 2004 | Pages 294-312
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT04-A3568
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Twenty-five tests have been carried out in the large-scale thermal-hydraulic facility PANDA to investigate natural-circulation and stability behavior under low-pressure/low-power conditions, when void flashing might play an important role. This work, which extends the current experimental database to a large geometric scale, is of interest notably with regard to the start-up procedures in natural-circulation-cooled boiling water reactors. It should help the understanding of the physical phenomena that may cause flow instability in such conditions and can be used for validation of thermal-hydraulics system codes. The tests were performed at a constant power, balanced by a specific condenser heat removal capacity. The test matrix allowed the reactor pressure vessel power and pressure to be varied, as well as other parameters influencing the natural-circulation flow. The power spectra of flow oscillations showed in a few tests a major and unique resonance peak, and decay ratios between 0.5 and 0.9 have been found. The remainder of the tests showed an even more pronounced stable behavior. A classification of the tests is presented according to the circulation modes (from single-phase to two-phase flow) that could be assumed and particularly to the importance and the localization of the flashing phenomenon.