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Division Spotlight
Isotopes & Radiation
Members are devoted to applying nuclear science and engineering technologies involving isotopes, radiation applications, and associated equipment in scientific research, development, and industrial processes. Their interests lie primarily in education, industrial uses, biology, medicine, and health physics. Division committees include Analytical Applications of Isotopes and Radiation, Biology and Medicine, Radiation Applications, Radiation Sources and Detection, and Thermal Power Sources.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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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Nuclear Science and Engineering
April 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
February 2024
Latest News
Can hydrogen be the transportation fuel in an otherwise nuclear economy?
Let’s face it: The global economy should be powered primarily by nuclear power. And it probably will by the end of this century, with a still-significant assist from renewables and hydro. Once nuclear systems are dominant, the costs come down to where gas is now; and when carbon emissions are reduced to a small portion of their present state, it will become obvious that most other sources are only good in niche settings. I mean, why use small modular reactors to load-follow when they can just produce that power instead of buffering it?
Paul W. Humrickhouse, Brad J. Merrill
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 67 | Number 1 | January 2015 | Pages 167-178
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST14-799
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
ARIES-ACT1 (Advanced and Conservative Tokamak) is a 1000-MW(electric) tokamak design featuring advanced plasma physics and divertor and blanket engineering. Some relevant features include an advanced SiC blanket with PbLi as coolant and breeder; a helium-cooled steel structural ring and tungsten divertors; a thin-walled, helium-cooled vacuum vessel; and a room-temperature, water-cooled shield outside the vacuum vessel. We consider here some safety aspects of the ARIES-ACT1 design and model a series of design-basis and beyond-design-basis accidents with the MELCOR code modified for fusion. The presence of multiple coolants (PbLi, helium, and water) makes possible a variety of such accidents. We consider here a loss-of-flow accident caused by a long-term station blackout (LTSBO), an ex-vessel helium break into the cryostat, and a beyond-design-basis accident in which a LTSBO is aggravated by a loss-of-coolant accident in ARIES-ACT1's ultimate decay heat removal system, the water-cooled shield. In the design-basis accidents, we find that the secondary confinement boundaries are not challenged, and the structural integrity of in-vessel components is not threatened by high temperatures or pressures; decay heat can be passively removed.