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
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.
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!
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Latest News
Securing the advanced reactor fleet
Physical protection accounts for a significant portion of a nuclear power plant’s operational costs. As the U.S. moves toward smaller and safer advanced reactors, similar protection strategies could prove cost prohibitive. For tomorrow’s small modular reactors and microreactors, security costs must remain appropriate to the size of the reactor for economical operation.
R. B. Vilim
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 130 | Number 3 | November 1998 | Pages 292-308
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE98-A2007
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A model-based method is developed to predict probabilistic margins to safety limits for passively safe reactors where the same physical mechanisms that control reactor behavior at power also control off-normal response. Model parameter values are estimated using the maximum likelihood method from the plant response to perturbations of flow, temperature, and rod reactivity applied during normal operation. The resulting model can be used to predict plant response to upsets and provide a probabilistic measure of how closely safety limits would be approached. The method is applied to the Integral Fast Reactor.