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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.
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2025 ANS Annual Conference
June 15–18, 2025
Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott Downtown
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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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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
Y. Iwai, H. Nakamura, S. Konishi, M. Nishi, R. S. Willms
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 41 | Number 3 | May 2002 | Pages 668-672
Safety and Safety System | Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Tritium Science and Technology Tsukuba, Japan November 12-16, 2001 | doi.org/10.13182/FST02-A22671
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Sudden loss of cryogenic helium coolant accident (ISS-LOCA) in the cryogenic distillation columns for the hydrogen isotope separation system (ISS) is one of the worst situations because it leads the evaporation of liquid hydrogen in the column. From this background, an intended ISS-LOCA test was conducted with an actual ITER-scale cryogenic distillation column. Sudden increase of internal pressure was not observed and enough time is found to recover the hydrogen isotope into a storage system if vacuum insulation is maintained and reboiler heaters are turned off immediately. In off-normal conditions, the rapid recovery of hydrogen in the column by an empty hydrogen storage bed is a reasonable hydrogen recovery scenario. Validity of the hydrogen recovery scenario was proved by a demonstration test.
