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
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Mar 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
April 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
February 2024
Latest News
From South Korea to Belgium: Testing a high-density research reactor fuel
The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute has developed a high-density uranium silicide fuel designed to replace high-enriched uranium in research reactors. Recent irradiation tests appear to be successful, KAERI reports, which means the fuel could be commercialized to continue a key global nuclear nonproliferation effort—converting research reactors to run on low-enriched uranium fuel.
Ethan Coffey, Greg Hanson, David Hill, Timothy Jones, Arnold Lumsdaine, Claire Luttrell, Chuck Schaich
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 72 | Number 3 | October 2017 | Pages 505-509
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1333857
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The ITER Electron Cyclotron Heating (ECH) system provides 20 MW of microwave power from 24 gyrotron sources. The power is transmitted through evacuated, corrugated waveguide transmission lines. The aluminum waveguide is cooled by the attachment of water-cooled copper tubes. These are connected through a conductive graphite foil that is used to increase the heat transfer ability between the aluminum and copper. In the regions where the waveguide is joined to a miter bend or to another waveguide section via a coupling, the waveguide cannot be actively cooled due to coupling hardware. Waveguide sections near couplings and miter bends are modeled and subjected to heat loads based on ITER design specifications. The thermal analysis predicts the maximum waveguide temperature in these regions and the amount of axial thermal expansion of the waveguide.
In addition, testing is done to determine the thermal contact conductance (TCC) between copper and aluminum surfaces with and without several candidate thermal contact materials. These results are used in the finite element analysis to model the ability to transfer heat across interfaces. The TCC test results make it clear that there is significant heat transfer between separate components, as the TCC between components is greater than 5 kW/m2K without thermal contact material and greater than 30 kW/m2K when thin graphite foil is used to increase the heat transfer ability. Therefore miter bends and miter bend mirrors are included as necessary in the finite element model.