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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
Can hydrogen be the transportation fuel in an otherwise nuclear economy?
Let’s face it: The global economy should be powered primarily by nuclear power. And it probably will by the end of this century, with a still-significant assist from renewables and hydro. Once nuclear systems are dominant, the costs come down to where gas is now; and when carbon emissions are reduced to a small portion of their present state, it will become obvious that most other sources are only good in niche settings. I mean, why use small modular reactors to load-follow when they can just produce that power instead of buffering it?
T. H. Newton, Jr., M. S. Kazimi, E. E. Pilat
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 157 | Number 3 | November 2007 | Pages 264-279
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE07-A2727
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Reactor II (MITR-II) is a 5-MW research reactor presently fueled with highly enriched uranium (HEU) in uranium-aluminum plate-type elements. A low-enriched uranium (LEU)-fueled core has been designed using 20% enriched monolithic uranium-molybdenum fuel that maintains high experimental neutron flux and increases flexibility in meeting the needs of experiments. The configuration of the new plate fuel elements was selected using a full-core MCNP model, with which different in-core materials were evaluated to optimize the neutron fluxes, reactivity, and experimental neutron spectrum. In-core materials were chosen to meet experimental flux level and spectrum needs. Of the designs evaluated, the most promising consisted of half-width fuel elements with nine U-7Mo LEU fuel plates.Results from the MCNP/ORIGEN linkage code MCODE depletion calculations showed that the refueling interval of the chosen LEU core would be twice as long as the HEU core at the same power level. Thermal-hydraulic analysis using the MULtiCHannel analysis code II (MULCH-II) indicated that the peak channel will remain below the onset of nucleate boiling under normal and loss-of-flow conditions. A thermal-hydraulic evaluation of the limiting channel using point kinetics showed that the LEU core could withstand a step reactivity insertion of 3.92 $, increasing by 60% the allowable reactivity for an in-core experiment. Finally, preliminary analyses show that it may be feasible to use the proposed design to double the core power, if the fuel cycle length is to be kept at its present length.