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
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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
Jul 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
September 2025
Nuclear Technology
August 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Deep Space: The new frontier of radiation controls
In commercial nuclear power, there has always been a deliberate tension between the regulator and the utility owner. The regulator fundamentally exists to protect the worker, and the utility, to make a profit. It is a win-win balance.
From the U.S. nuclear industry has emerged a brilliantly successful occupational nuclear safety record—largely the result of an ALARA (as low as reasonably achievable) process that has driven exposure rates down to what only a decade ago would have been considered unthinkable. In the U.S. nuclear industry, the system has accomplished an excellent, nearly seamless process that succeeds to the benefit of both employee and utility owner.
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.
