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Division Spotlight
Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
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.
Daniel T. Willcox, James R. Parry
Nuclear Technology | Volume 205 | Number 10 | October 2019 | Pages 1302-1311
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2019.1590075
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Transient Reactor Test Facility has been restarted after more than 20 years in a safe standby condition. The plan to bring the reactor back into operation included a typical core characterization that was historically performed every time the core was reconfigured for a new experiment campaign. The core characterization included determining initial critical position of the control rods, a heat balance run for calibration of the nuclear instruments to enable the indication of reactor power, control rod worth measurements, and a series of three temperature-limited transients increasing in the amount of reactivity inserted as a step for the interpolation of set points for the reactor trip system and reactivity insertion limits. The heat balance and control rod worth measurements are discussed in this paper. After critical control rod position was determined, a heat balance operation was used to position the nuclear instruments for correct power indication. This was followed by control rod differential worth measurements to generate the control rod worth curves used by the automatic reactor control system for control of the reactor during transient operations. These restart evolutions are summarized here, and the results are compared to the historic measurements.