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Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Division Spotlight
Aerospace Nuclear Science & Technology
Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
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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May 2024
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Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
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.
Una Baker, Marisol Garrouste, Sooyoung Choi, Gabriel J. Soto, Ross Snuggerud, Brendan Kochunas, Ben Lindley
Nuclear Technology | Volume 210 | Number 1 | January 2024 | Pages 1-22
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2023.2216973
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The NuScale small modular reactor (SMR) has been modeled using the Virtual Environment for Reactor Applications multiphysics environment and the results compared with the publicly reported data in the Design Certification Application. The results show an excellent agreement for the compared axial and radial power distributions, temperature coefficients of reactivity, boron and control rod worths, and fast neutron flux. This NuScale model is then used to investigate the effect of different operational modes on reactor components to determine how the flexible load-following operation may affect control rod and reactor pressure vessel (RPV) lifetimes. The control rod degradation is confirmed to primarily affect the silver-indium-cadmium rod tip. The degradation rate is observed to follow a nonlinear function of core power level where the increase in degradation decreases with insertion depth.
For the variation in core power levels expected with current load-following schemes, the total control rod degradation is found to be mild, at 5% to 10% of usable life per cycle for a reactor operating at <80% power. Nonetheless, this enables load-following strategies to be confirmed and/or modified to ensure that control rods do not need to be replaced during the 60+ year life of the reactor. The RPV degradation was found to be almost directly proportional to the core power level and was not overly sensitive to flux shape perturbations. Future work is planned using these damage functions to optimize operation over multiple NuScale SMR units and to develop strategies for prognostics and health management.