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Division Spotlight
Young Members Group
The Young Members Group works to encourage and enable all young professional members to be actively involved in the efforts and endeavors of the Society at all levels (Professional Divisions, ANS Governance, Local Sections, etc.) as they transition from the role of a student to the role of a professional. It sponsors non-technical workshops and meetings that provide professional development and networking opportunities for young professionals, collaborates with other Divisions and Groups in developing technical and non-technical content for topical and national meetings, encourages its members to participate in the activities of the Groups and Divisions that are closely related to their professional interests as well as in their local sections, introduces young members to the rules and governance structure of the Society, and nominates young professionals for awards and leadership opportunities available to members.
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
Commercial nuclear innovation "new space" age
In early 2006, a start-up company launched a small rocket from a tiny island in the Pacific. It exploded, showering the island with debris. A year later, a second launch attempt sent a rocket to space but failed to make orbit, burning up in the atmosphere. Another year brought a third attempt—and a third failure. The following month, in September 2008, the company used the last of its funds to launch a fourth rocket. It reached orbit, making history as the first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to do so.
V. Pascal, G. Prulhière, M. Vanier, B. Fontaine
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 175 | Number 2 | October 2013 | Pages 109-123
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE12-19
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Before the definitive shutdown of the prototype Phénix, a final set of experiments was performed to gather important data about the operation and safety of sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs).Among the accident sequences that are to be taken into account, inadvertent withdrawal of a control rod is considered. During operation at nominal power, such a sequence induces a general power increase and local deformations of the power shape. Afterward, local fuel temperature increases can thereby lead to fuel melting and clad failure.The quasi-static control rod withdrawal test was specially designed to gather local power data on fissile assemblies and to complete validation databases of neutronic codes. The maximal deformation of the power shape reached ±12% and was obtained when two control rods were shifted in opposite directions.The test analysis was conducted with the neutronics code ERANOS-2.2. Comparisons between calculated and measured values were satisfying. Most of the discrepancies in power estimation can be explained by measurement problems (heat transfer, sodium mixing).The association of ERANOS-2.2 and the nuclear library JEFF-3.1, presently used for the predesign phase of the ASTRID reactor, constitutes an acceptable predictive tool for local and integral parameter estimations in SFRs, specifically in the evaluation of the control rod withdrawal incident.