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
Education, Training & Workforce Development
The Education, Training & Workforce Development Division provides communication among the academic, industrial, and governmental communities through the exchange of views and information on matters related to education, training and workforce development in nuclear and radiological science, engineering, and technology. Industry leaders, education and training professionals, and interested students work together through Society-sponsored meetings and publications, to enrich their professional development, to educate the general public, and to advance nuclear and radiological science and engineering.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
May 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
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
Lihua Zhou, Rui Vieira, Soren Harrison, Dan Karnes, Bruce Lipschultz
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 64 | Number 2 | August 2013 | Pages 293-297
Divertor and High-Heat-Flux Components | Proceedings of the Twentieth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (TOFE-2012) (Part 1), Nashville, Tennessee, August 27-31, 2012 | doi.org/10.13182/FST13-A18092
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
To design the Alcator C-Mod outer divertor to operate at 600°C and determine its effect on the surrounding vessel and diagnostics, heat transfer analysis must be performed. This paper describes the analysis and the results of heat transfer simulations of the outer divertor tiles, tile-mounting plate, support structure, and current shunt. Using Comsol, commercial FEA software package, a 3D wedge model that exploits the cyclic symmetry of the divertor, is created. By adjusting the power level of each of the 7 heaters used to elevate and control the divertor temperature, a uniform poloidal temperature distribution is achieved and the power requirements for the heaters are determined. The temperature of each component in the assembly is calculated, and results are used for further design changes. Additionally, radiation simulation on thermal shields are presented, which is used as ambient temperature for the heat transfer of the A-frame assembly. Furthermore, a full model of the entire outer divertor ring is presented with its toroidal temperature distribution. Finally, thermal stress of the plate is analyzed besides an analytical calculation of the maximum allowable temperature difference.
