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Division Spotlight
Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
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
G7 pledges support for nuclear at Italy meeting
The Group of Seven (G7) recommitted its support for nuclear energy in the countries that opt to use it at a Ministerial Meeting on Climate in Italy last month.
In a statement following the April meeting, the group committed to support multilateral efforts to strengthen the resilience of nuclear supply chains, referencing the goal set by 25 countries during last year’s COP28 climate conference in Dubai to triple global nuclear generating capacity by 2050.
A. Nava-Dominguez, S. Liu, T. Beuthe, B. P. Bromley, A. V. Colton
Nuclear Technology | Volume 207 | Number 8 | August 2021 | Pages 1216-1236
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2020.1813463
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The use of advanced uranium-based and thorium-based fuel bundles in a 700-MW(electric)–class pressure tube heavy water reactor (PT-HWR) has the potential for improved performance characteristics with higher burnup, higher fissile fuel utilization, and lower coolant void reactivity while also extracting the energy potential in thorium. In this study, thermal-hydraulic subchannel analyses were performed for a single, high-power (6.5 MW), 12-bundle fuel channel at typical reactor operating conditions for 14 different PT-HWR lattice/core concepts using various types of advanced uranium-based and thorium-based fuels in 37-element and 35-element fuel bundle design concepts. Fuel bundle radial power distributions for fresh fuel at zero burnup were used in the thermal-hydraulic calculations, as a bounding case, along with axial power distributions that are representative of those that may be found in a high-power fuel channel in a PT-HWR core at near-equilibrium refueling conditions. The fuel bundle radial power distributions and fuel channel axial power distributions were determined from previous lattice physics and core physics studies. Based on the subchannel thermal-hydraulic analyses, the LC-05b/CC-04 BUNDLE-37-mod concept and the LC-12b/CC-08 BUNDLE-35 concept are recommended as the best candidates for further full-core system thermal-hydraulic transient analyses, based on critical heat flux and void fraction performance factors. BUNDLE-37 concept LC-01/CC-00 is also recommended as the reference case for future analysis.