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The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
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2025 ANS Annual Conference
June 15–18, 2025
Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott Downtown
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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
X. Albets-Chico, H. Radhakrishnan, S. C. Kassinos
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 61 | Number 1 | January 2012 | Pages 1-10
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST12-A13335
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper addresses liquid-metal flow under a strong, fringing, decreasing magnetic field in an insulating circular pipe by a full resolution of the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations. The aims of the paper are first to provide a detailed description of the flow and second to perform a study of the restrictions related to the approximate numerical techniques commonly used in the nuclear fusion field, namely, the so-called core flow approximation based on asymptotic methods. Finally, a comparison between full MHD solutions obtained under conducting and insulating circular pipe walls, at similar MHD conditions, is provided. The current results show that the role of inertia is clearly more important under electrically insulating ducts because no net braking MHD forces are present in such configurations. This fact adversely affects the accuracy of asymptotic method results. From a phenomenological point of view, the effects of wall conductivity are found to be very important. For instance, when insulating walls are present, the intensity of the generated near-wall jets is three times larger than that found in conducting configurations. As a result, the shear effects and the triggering of turbulence in the downstream area are clearly enhanced.
