ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
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Division Spotlight
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
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
DOE awards $59.7 million for university nuclear R&D in 2024; $1 billion in 15 years
The Office of Nuclear Energy is awarding $59.7 million to 25 U.S. colleges and universities, two national laboratories, and one industry organization to support nuclear energy research and development and provide access to world-class research facilities, the Department of Energy announced on April 15.
Tuomo Sevón
Nuclear Technology | Volume 197 | Number 2 | February 2017 | Pages 171-179
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NT16-108
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The water ingression mechanism can enhance the coolability of a pool of molten corium in containment during a severe accident. A water ingression model was added to the MELCOR code in 2015. The purpose of this work was to test the new model. It was found that the water ingression model performed satisfactorily in core-concrete–interaction experiments in which gas bubbles were released to the melt from decomposing concrete. The new model had little effect in the Small-Scale Water Ingression and Crust Strength (SSWICS) experiments that were done without gas bubbling through the melt. When applied to the Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1 accident, the water ingression model slowed down concrete ablation by 19% but did not quench the melt. Because the water ingression model was added to MELCOR so recently, the default treatment is still to use multipliers for the boiling heat transfer coefficient and thermal conductivity instead of the proper water ingression model. These default parameters significantly overestimated melt coolability in all the experiments that were calculated.