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
Thermal Hydraulics
The division provides a forum for focused technical dialogue on thermal hydraulic technology in the nuclear industry. Specifically, this will include heat transfer and fluid mechanics involved in the utilization of nuclear energy. It is intended to attract the highest quality of theoretical and experimental work to ANS, including research on basic phenomena and application to nuclear system design.
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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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
P. W. Fisher, S. L. Milora, S. K. Combs, R. V. Carlson, D. O. Coffin
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 14 | Number 2 | September 1988 | Pages 977-981
Containment, Control, and Maintenance of Tritium System | doi.org/10.13182/FST88-A25264
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Tritium Proof-of-Principle (TPOP) pellet injector was designed and built by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to evaluate the production and acceleration of tritium pellets for fueling future fusion reactors. The injector uses the pipe-gun concept to form pellets directly in a short liquid-helium-cooled section of the barrel. Pellets are accelerated by using high-pressure hydrogen supplied from a fast solenoid valve. A versatile, tritium-compatible gas-handling system provides all of the functions needed to operate the gun, including feed gas pressure control and flow control, plus helium separation and preparation of mixtures. These systems are contained in a glovebox for secondary containment of tritium. Tritium experiments will be carried out at the Tritium Systems Test Assembly (TSTA) at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).
