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
Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
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
Apr 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
May 2025
Latest News
Argonne’s METL gears up to test more sodium fast reactor components
Argonne National Laboratory has successfully swapped out an aging cold trap in the sodium test loop called METL (Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop), the Department of Energy announced April 23. The upgrade is the first of its kind in the United States in more than 30 years, according to the DOE, and will help test components and operations for the sodium-cooled fast reactors being developed now.
Kazuyoshi Miki, Kotaro Inoue
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 59 | Number 2 | February 1976 | Pages 161-169
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE76-A15686
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A new calculation code, the Hot Spot Probabilistic Evaluation Code (HOSPEC), is presented for evaluating hot-spot factors in a fast reactor. This code calculates the probability distribution of temperature in the whole core by means of a Monte Carlo method. Each Monte Carlo trial involves a complete thermal conduction analysis, thereby reducing errors due to assumptions in analytic procedures currently in use. With this code it is possible to determine the probability that fuel pellets, fuel pins, or subassemblies will exceed the limiting temperature, as well as determine the number of such “hot spots” that will develop. A quantitative comparison is made of the results obtained from this code with those from other analyses of a prototype fast reactor. The comparison has indicated, among other points, the following findings: 1. For zero hot spots, a conventional analytic evaluation code SHOSPA gives conservative results, i.e., ∼20°C at the fuel center, at a 3σ confidence level. 2. It is of crucial importance to take into account the temperature dependence of the properties of the materials. Neglecting such dependence leads to a much more conservative temperature prediction, e.g., ∼50°C at the fuel center.