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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
2025 ANS Annual Conference
June 15–18, 2025
Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott Downtown
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 2025
Jan 2025
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Nuclear Science and Engineering
July 2025
Nuclear Technology
June 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
High-temperature plumbing and advanced reactors
The use of nuclear fission power and its role in impacting climate change is hotly debated. Fission advocates argue that short-term solutions would involve the rapid deployment of Gen III+ nuclear reactors, like Vogtle-3 and -4, while long-term climate change impact would rely on the creation and implementation of Gen IV reactors, “inherently safe” reactors that use passive laws of physics and chemistry rather than active controls such as valves and pumps to operate safely. While Gen IV reactors vary in many ways, one thing unites nearly all of them: the use of exotic, high-temperature coolants. These fluids, like molten salts and liquid metals, can enable reactor engineers to design much safer nuclear reactors—ultimately because the boiling point of each fluid is extremely high. Fluids that remain liquid over large temperature ranges can provide good heat transfer through many demanding conditions, all with minimal pressurization. Although the most apparent use for these fluids is advanced fission power, they have the potential to be applied to other power generation sources such as fusion, thermal storage, solar, or high-temperature process heat.1–3
Technical Session|Sponsored by MSTD
Monday, June 13, 2022|3:15–5:00PM PDT|Malibu
Session Chair:
Jake Quincey (Oregon State Univ.)
Alternate Chair:
Troy Munro
Session Organizer:
Kenneth J. Geelhood
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Impact of Diffusion Parameters on Cs and Sr Release from TRISO Fuel Particles at High Temperature
Seokbin Seo (Univ. Tennessee, Knoxville), Brian D. Wirth (Univ. Tennessee, Knoxville)
Paper
Graphite in Fluoride Salts Reactors: Tritium Sequestration, Tribology, and Salt Infiltration
Lorenzo Vergari (Univ. California, Berkeley), Raluca Scarlat (Univ. California, Berkeley)
Density Functional Theory van der Waals Corrections for Simulating Fluoride and Chloride Molten Salts
Stephen T. Lam (Univ. Massachusetts, Lowell), Shubhojit Banerjee (Univ. Massachusetts, Lowell), Rajni Chahal (Univ. Massachusetts, Lowell)
Digestion of FLiNaK for Elemental Analysis with ICP-OES
S. Mastromarino (Univ. California, Berkeley), A. Kennedy (Univ. California, Berkeley), R.O. Scarlat (Univ. California, Berkeley)
Probing Speciation of Light Elements in Molten Salts by Electrochemistry, High Temperature Liquid NMR, and Neutron Diffraction
Haley Williams (Univ. California, Berkeley), Nathanael Gardner (Univ. California, Berkeley), Mark Asta (Univ. California, Berkeley), Boris Khaykovich (MIT), Sven C. Vogel (LANL), Ian Farnan (Univ. Cambridge), Raluca O. Scarlat (Univ. California, Berkeley)
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