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Division Spotlight
Accelerator Applications
The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
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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Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2024
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Latest News
How robust is HALEU from a nonproliferation perspective?
Shikha Prasad
High-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) has emerged as a popular fuel choice for advanced small modular reactors due to its long power production periods before refueling. It is currently being pursued by TerraPower, X-energy, BWX Technologies, Kairos, Oklo, and other reactor companies. HALEU has a uranium-235 enrichment ranging from 5 percent to 20 percent, whereas traditional LWRs use low-enriched uranium fuel enriched up to 5 percent.
HALEU will provide power for longer durations, compared with traditional LWRs. But could it also provide an opportunity for more rapid proliferation, as is speculated in a 2023 National Academy of Sciences report on advanced nuclear reactors (nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/26630/)?
If a nuclear proliferator conspires to divert fresh nuclear fuel for weapons production when it has not been used in a reactor, the effort required in separative work units (SWUs) to enrich U-235 from 5 percent to 90 percent and that required to enrich from 20 percent to 90 percent are both very small, compared with the effort required to enrich U-235 from its natural abundance to the initial 5 percent.
Technical Session|Reactor Design and Analysis
Monday, April 22, 2024|10:15AM–12:00PM PDT|Franciscan A
Session Chair:
Friederike Bostelmann
Alternate Chair:
Donny Hartanto
Session Organizer:
Brendan M. Kochunas
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Impact of Inspection Time on Pebble-Bed Reactor Operation
10:15–10:35AM PDT
Clément Vayron de la Moureyre (Univ. California, Berkeley), Yves Robert (Univ. California, Berkeley), Massimiliano Fratoni (Univ. California, Berkeley)
Presented by Ludovic Jantzen (Univ. California, Berkeley)
Paper
ZONER: A Discrete Element Method (DEM) Post-Processing Methodology for Pebble Bed Reactors Spectral Regions Generation
10:35–10:55AM PDT
G. Busco (Kairos Power), F. Vitullo (Kairos Power), M. Lee (Kairos Power), J. Herter (Kairos Power), N. Satvat (Kairos Power)
Impact of Coupled DEM and Hyper-Fidelity Depletion on Pebble Bed Burnup
10:55–11:15AM PDT
Yves Robert (ORNL), Ludovic Jantzen (Univ. California, Berkeley), Tatiana Siaraferas (Univ. California, Berkeley), Massimiliano Fratoni (Univ. California, Berkeley)
Multiphysics Pebble-Bed Reactor Run-In Simulation Using a High-Fidelity Neutronics--Thermal Hydraulics Framework
11:15–11:35AM PDT
R. Stewart (INL), J. Cavaluzzi (INL), P. Balestra (INL), G. Strydom (INL)
Preliminary Study on Multiphysics Transient Calculations for Pebble Bed Reactors Using High-Fidelity Depletion Data
11:35–11:55AM PDT
Tatiana Siaraferas (Univ. California, Berkeley), Ludovic V. Jantzen (Univ. California, Berkeley), Yves Robert (ORNL), Faisal A. Alseaidan (Univ. California, Berkeley), Massimiliano Fratoni (Univ. California, Berkeley)
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