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
Nuclear Criticality Safety
NCSD provides communication among nuclear criticality safety professionals through the development of standards, the evolution of training methods and materials, the presentation of technical data and procedures, and the creation of specialty publications. In these ways, the division furthers the exchange of technical information on nuclear criticality safety with the ultimate goal of promoting the safe handling of fissionable materials outside reactors.
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
Apr 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2024
Nuclear Technology
May 2024
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
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.
Luciano Burgazzi
Nuclear Technology | Volume 156 | Number 2 | November 2006 | Pages 150-158
Technical Paper | Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT06-A3781
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The inclusion of passive safety-related systems within the advanced reactor design claims high system availability and reliability. A detailed system and safety analysis applying the failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) approach is required as a primary step for the development of a methodology aimed at the reliability assessment of passive systems. The present study concerns thermal-hydraulic passive systems that are designed for decay heat removal and rely on natural circulation that foresee a heat exchanger immersed in a cooling pool. The main purposes of the work are to identify important accident initiators, find out the possible consequences to the plant deriving from component malfunctions, individuate possible causes, identify mitigating features and systems, and classify accident initiators in initiating events of accident sequences. A qualitative overview of accident sequences could be derived from the FMEA tables looking at consequences' description and preventive and corrective actions. Failure probabilistic evaluations are included as well to point out the probabilities and frequencies to have the plant in fault and/or unavailability conditions during passive system operation, therefore ensuring a complete set of initiating events of reactor accident sequences. Finally, important feedback to the design activities will derive from the FMEA study performed for safety assessment purposes. An important lesson elicited from the analysis is that measures against common-cause failures can reduce significantly the probability of failure of the system.