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Decommissioning & Environmental Sciences
The mission of the Decommissioning and Environmental Sciences (DES) Division is to promote the development and use of those skills and technologies associated with the use of nuclear energy and the optimal management and stewardship of the environment, sustainable development, decommissioning, remediation, reutilization, and long-term surveillance and maintenance of nuclear-related installations, and sites. The target audience for this effort is the membership of the Division, the Society, and the public at large.
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2025 ANS Annual Conference
June 15–18, 2025
Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott Downtown
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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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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
Michael D. Green, Jak Kornfilt
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 65 | Number 2 | February 1978 | Pages 385-393
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE78-A27165
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A method for rapid numerical simulation of transient radial heat transfer in nuclear fuel pins is presented. The method is based on a z-transfer matrix formulation of the transient conduction equations and assumes constant physical properties. The elements of the z-transfer matrix are obtained from Laplace transfer functions that are polynomial approximations to the exact equations over a specifiable frequency band, weighted to a better fit in the least-squares sense for frequencies for which inputs are expected to have higher amplitudes than for frequencies for which amplitudes of inputs are expected to be lower. Examples that demonstrate the method suitable for a large number of the transients encountered in plant dynamic analysis are presented.
