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Division Spotlight
Isotopes & Radiation
Members are devoted to applying nuclear science and engineering technologies involving isotopes, radiation applications, and associated equipment in scientific research, development, and industrial processes. Their interests lie primarily in education, industrial uses, biology, medicine, and health physics. Division committees include Analytical Applications of Isotopes and Radiation, Biology and Medicine, Radiation Applications, Radiation Sources and Detection, and Thermal Power Sources.
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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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.
Christophe Journeau, Jean Michel Bonnet, Eric Boccaccio, Pascal Piluso, Jose Monerris, Michel Breton, Gerald Fritz, Tuomo Sevón, Pekka H. Pankakoski, Stefan Holmström, Jouko Virta
Nuclear Technology | Volume 170 | Number 1 | April 2010 | Pages 189-200
Technical Paper | Special Issue on the 2008 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants / Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT10-A9457
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper presents results from two ongoing European experimental programs on molten core concrete interactions: HECLA at VTT and VULCANO at the Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique. In the HECLA experiments, metallic melt is poured into a cylindrical concrete crucible. The focus is on the initial, pouring phase of the interaction. Therefore, decay heat simulation is not required. The HECLA-2 experiment involved 50 kg of stainless steel at 1700°C and siliceous concrete. The final ablation depths were 25-30 mm in the basemat and [approximately]15 mm in the side wall. The VULCANO VB experiments have been devoted to the study of the interaction of 28 to 45 kg of oxidic corium with silica-rich or limestone-rich concretes. These tests focus on long-term ablation and require the use of induction heating to simulate the decay heat fluxes. Anisotropic ablation between the horizontal and vertical direction has been observed with silica-rich concrete, confirming the CCI tests. A new series of experiments VULCANO VBS has been launched in which there are both oxide and metallic phases in the melt. In these tests, magnetic screening is used so that the induction power is provided almost only to the upper oxidic layer after stratification.