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.
Division Spotlight
Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Mar 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
April 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
February 2024
Latest News
Lightbridge announces first U-Zr fuel rod samples extruded at INL
Lightbridge Corporation announced today that it has reached “a critical milestone” in the development of its extruded solid fuel technology. Coupon samples using an alloy of zirconium and depleted uranium—not the high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) that Lightbridge plans to use to manufacture its fuel for the commercial market—were extruded at Idaho National Laboratory’s Materials and Fuels Complex.
J. G. B. Saccheri, N. E. Todreas, M. J. Driscoll
Nuclear Technology | Volume 158 | Number 3 | June 2007 | Pages 315-347
Technical Paper | Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT07-A3845
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An 8-yr core design for an epithermal, water-cooled reactor has been developed based upon assessments of nuclear reactor physics, thermal hydraulics, and economics. An integral-vessel configuration is adopted, and self-supporting wire-wrap fuel is employed for the tight lattice of the epithermal core. A streaming path is incorporated in each assembly to ensure a negative void coefficient. A whole-core simulation of the tight core with the stochastic, continuous-energy, transport code MCNP shows a negative void coefficient for the whole cycle during normal operating conditions. Analysis of in-core, flow-induced vibrations indicates that the design has a greater margin to fluid-elastic instability than a standard pressurized water reactor, allowing for higher coolant mass flux and improved safety. Enhanced flow mixing and thermal margins are also achieved, and the VIPRETM code for subchannel thermal-hydraulic analysis has been used to calculate the critical heat flux (CHF) by means of a wire-wrap CHF correlation specifically introduced in the source code. The combination of increased fuel enrichment (~14 wt% 235U, still below the proliferation-resistant limit of 20 wt% 235U), relatively low core-average discharge burnup (70 MWd/kg HM), and very long core life (8 yr) lead to high lifetime-levelized fuel cycle unit cost [in mills/kWh(electric)]. However, both operation and maintenance (O&M) and capital-related expenditures strongly benefit from the higher electric output per unit volume, which yields quite small lifetime-levelized capital and O&M unit costs for the overall plant. Financing requirements are included, and an estimate is provided for the lifetime-levelized total unit cost of the epithermal core, which is ~16% lower than that of a more open-lattice thermal spectrum core, fitting into the same core envelope and with a 4-yr lifetime.