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.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
Feb 2026
Jul 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
February 2026
Nuclear Technology
January 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
DOE announces NEPA exclusion for advanced reactors
The Department of Energy has announced that it is establishing a categorical exclusion for the application of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) procedures to the authorization, siting, construction, operation, reauthorization, and decommissioning of advanced nuclear reactors.
According to the DOE, this significant change, which goes into effect today, “is based on the experience of DOE and other federal agencies, current technologies, regulatory requirements, and accepted industry practice.”
Diethelm Schroeder-Richter
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 29 | Number 4 | July 1996 | Pages 468-486
Technical Paper | Blanket Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST96-A30691
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
On the basis of a new hypothesis of thermodynamic states (the superheated wall layer is not metastable but saturated at locally elevated pressure), an analytical estimation is presented of the whole boiling curve [except critical heat flux (CHF), but fixed at this point, known by experiments or correlation]. The curvature of the boiling curve (bubbly flow) is deduced from thermodynamics of irreversible processes. The wall temperature corresponding to departure from nucleate boiling is calculated from balances of momentum at the interfaces, based on the assumption that the speed of sound may be a limit for maximum evaporation mass flux and thereby heat flux, i.e., CHF. Heat flux during transition boiling is determined from balance of energy at the rewetting front. At the Leidenfrost point, a minimum heat flux is neglected. Thus, Leidenfrost temperature, as well as wall temperature at CHF, can be calculated analytically without using empirical coefficients. Heat flux of bubbly flow and transition boiling can be matched at any empirical CHF point. All these results are determined from properties of state alone, i.e., the models can be verified for all fluids including water and liquid metals (so far at moderate heat fluxes). Especially the latter two fluids are of interest for high-heat-flux application, and the precondition of low void fraction is expected to be fulfilled.