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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.
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2025 ANS Annual Conference
June 15–18, 2025
Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott Downtown
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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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Latest News
Deep Isolation validates its disposal canister for TRISO spent fuel
Nuclear waste disposal technology company Deep Isolation announced it has successfully completed Project PUCK, a government-funded initiative to demonstrate the feasibility and potential commercial readiness of its Universal Canister System (UCS) to manage TRISO spent nuclear fuel.
M. R. Brown, M. Kaur
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 75 | Number 4 | May 2019 | Pages 275-282
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2019.1579622
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Magnetothermodynamics is the study of compression and expansion of magnetized plasma with an eye toward identifying equations of state (EOSs) for magneto-inertial fusion experiments. We present recent results from Swarthmore Spheromak Experiment (SSX) experiments on the thermodynamics of compressed magnetized plasmas called Taylor states. In these experiments, we generate twisted flux ropes of magnetized, relaxed plasma accelerated from one end of a 1.5-m-long copper flux conserver and observe their compression in a closed conducting boundary installed at the other end. Plasma parameters are measured during compression. The instances of ion heating during compression are identified by constructing a pressure-volume diagram using measured density, temperature, and volume of the magnetized plasma. While we only measure compression up to 30%, we speculate that if higher compression ratios could be achieved, the compressed Taylor states could form the basis of a new kind of fusion engine. The theoretically predicted magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) and double-adiabatic [Chew-Goldberger-Low (CGL)] EOSs are compared to experimental measurements to estimate the adiabatic nature of the compressed plasma. Since our magnetized plasmas relax to an equilibrium described by MHD, one might expect their thermodynamics to be governed by the corresponding EOS. However, we find that the MHD EOS is not supported by our data. Our results are more consistent with the parallel CGL EOS suggesting that these weakly collisional plasmas have most of their proton energy in the direction parallel to the magnetic field.