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
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Jul 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
August 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
July 2025
Latest News
NRC approves V.C. Summer’s second license renewal
Dominion Energy’s V.C. Summer nuclear power plant, in Jenkinsville, S.C., has been authorized to operate for 80 years, until August 2062, following the renewal of its operating license by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a second time.
Suhas Bhandarkar, Reny Paguio, Fred Elsner, Denise Hoover, Abbas Nikroo, Chris Guido
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 70 | Number 2 | August-September 2016 | Pages 127-136
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST15-245
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In this paper, we describe the reasoning that leads us to focus on the so-called curing process where a solid poly(α-methylstyrene) (PAMS) shell is formed from the initial solution phase. We demonstrate the existence of a percolation zone at about 55 wt% PAMS, beyond which the roundness of the shell can be expected to be irreversible. Using a simple model and a few supporting experiments to account for the rate of mass transfer of the fluorobenzene solvent phase, we show that curing rate is determined almost entirely by just a short exposure, to the sweeping gas, of the shells that graze the free surface of the curing bath as they move around in it. We propose here that specific control of the curing conditions at percolation would enable rounder mandrels.