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Division Spotlight
Education, Training & Workforce Development
The Education, Training & Workforce Development Division provides communication among the academic, industrial, and governmental communities through the exchange of views and information on matters related to education, training and workforce development in nuclear and radiological science, engineering, and technology. Industry leaders, education and training professionals, and interested students work together through Society-sponsored meetings and publications, to enrich their professional development, to educate the general public, and to advance nuclear and radiological science and engineering.
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
Proving DRACO will deliver
The United States is now closer than it has been in over five decades to launching the first nuclear thermal rocket into space, thanks to DRACO—the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Orbit.
Yeon Soo Kim, D. R. Olander, S. K. Yagnik
Nuclear Technology | Volume 128 | Number 3 | December 1999 | Pages 300-312
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT99-A3033
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
As a means of improving the gap-thermal conductance, a liquid metal (LM) is proposed as the gap-filling material replacing helium gas in the conventional light water reactor fuel rod. The potential application of the concept includes power reactor fuel rods, special-purpose test-reactor experimental rods, and mixed-oxide fuel rods. Novel fabrication methods to ensure a uniform LM-filled gap between the fuel and the cladding of minirods have been developed. The main concern was overcoming the large surface tension of an LM to eliminate LM-free spots in the gap. Compatibility tests of the LM with a Zircaloy tube have been conducted. Liquid gallium showed excessive reaction with Zircaloy at 350°C for a month. Liquid Bi-Sn-Pb alloy, on the other hand, showed a nearly negligible reaction with Zircaloy under the same conditions. Thermal superiority of the LM-bonded gap over a conventional helium-gas gap in a miniature fuel rod was confirmed through theoretical calculations and experimental measurements. The experiments involved water-quenching the element from 600°C and measuring the decrease of the fuel centerline temperature. The LM-bonded element reached 100°C in 10 s, while the gas-bonded element required nearly 100 s to attain this temperature.