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The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
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2025 ANS Annual Conference
June 15–18, 2025
Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott Downtown
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High-temperature plumbing and advanced reactors
The use of nuclear fission power and its role in impacting climate change is hotly debated. Fission advocates argue that short-term solutions would involve the rapid deployment of Gen III+ nuclear reactors, like Vogtle-3 and -4, while long-term climate change impact would rely on the creation and implementation of Gen IV reactors, “inherently safe” reactors that use passive laws of physics and chemistry rather than active controls such as valves and pumps to operate safely. While Gen IV reactors vary in many ways, one thing unites nearly all of them: the use of exotic, high-temperature coolants. These fluids, like molten salts and liquid metals, can enable reactor engineers to design much safer nuclear reactors—ultimately because the boiling point of each fluid is extremely high. Fluids that remain liquid over large temperature ranges can provide good heat transfer through many demanding conditions, all with minimal pressurization. Although the most apparent use for these fluids is advanced fission power, they have the potential to be applied to other power generation sources such as fusion, thermal storage, solar, or high-temperature process heat.1–3
Weston M. Stacey, Jr.
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 29 | Number 2 | August 1967 | Pages 254-263
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE67-A18535
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Analytical expressions for the spatially independent spectrum and importance (adjoint) function in fast-reactor assemblies have been developed. These expressions were obtained by solving the neutron balance equation, and the equation adjoint thereto, by the method of successive approximation. Solutions obtained in this manner suggest an interpretation of the collision density in terms of the probability that a fission neutron suffers a given sequence of scattering collisions, summed over all such sequences. Similarly, the importance function is interpreted in terms of the fission-neutron production probability following a given sequence of scattering collisions, summed over all such sequences. The analytical expressions are readily evaluated using either differential or group-averaged cross-section values. Integral properties of highly enriched and dilute fast-reactor assemblies were evaluated and compared with experiment; the agreement was comparable with that obtained with multigroup calculations normally employed to evaluate such assemblies.
