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.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
Apr 2026
Jan 2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2026
Nuclear Technology
March 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
May 2026
Latest News
DOE selects first companies for nuclear launch pad
The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy and the National Reactor Innovation Center have announced their first selections for the Nuclear Energy Launch Pad: three companies developing microreactors and one developing fuel supply.
The four companies—Deployable Energy, General Matter, NuCube Energy, and Radiant Industries—were selected from the initial pool of Reactor Pilot Program and Fuel Line Pilot Program applicants, the two precursor programs to the launch pad.
F. Botta, C. Hellwig
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 135 | Number 2 | June 2000 | Pages 165-176
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE00-A2132
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Nuclear fuel can be fabricated and used in the form of microspheres (sphere-pac fuel). The heat transport mechanisms in fuel pins containing sphere-pac fuel are however very different from those in pellet pins. They are controlled not only by the thermal conductivity of fuel, cladding, and fill gas but also by particle sizes and packing density, by their state of sintering, and by radiation and gas pressure. A theoretical model is presented accounting for all these parameters, but still simple and fast enough to be implemented into a fuel pin modeling code. The basic geometrical element for this model is derived from the orthorhombic packing. For calculation of a binary package, four different radial zones within the basic element are distinguished, i.e., neck zone, gas zone, infiltrated zone, and bypass zone. The method presented here combines an analytical one-dimensional treatment with a radial heat flow relaxation procedure simulating the second (radial) dimension. Results are compared with experimental and theoretical data from the literature. With the model presented here, sophisticated modeling of sphere-pac fuel pins is possible.