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Division Spotlight
Isotopes & Radiation
Members are devoted to applying nuclear science and engineering technologies involving isotopes, radiation applications, and associated equipment in scientific research, development, and industrial processes. Their interests lie primarily in education, industrial uses, biology, medicine, and health physics. Division committees include Analytical Applications of Isotopes and Radiation, Biology and Medicine, Radiation Applications, Radiation Sources and Detection, and Thermal Power Sources.
Meeting Spotlight
2025 ANS Annual Conference
June 15–18, 2025
Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott Downtown
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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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
Yuxuan Liu, William Martin, Mark Williams, Kang-Seog Kim
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 180 | Number 3 | July 2015 | Pages 247-272
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE14-65
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A correction-based resonance self-shielding method is developed that allows annular subdivision of the fuel rod. The method performs the conventional iteration of the embedded self-shielding method (ESSM) without subdivision of the fuel to capture the interpin shielding effect. The resultant self-shielded cross sections are modified by correction factors incorporating the intrapin effects of radial variation of the shielded cross section, radial temperature distribution, and resonance interference. A quasi–one-dimensional slowing-down equation is developed to calculate such correction factors. The method is implemented in the DeCART code and compared with the conventional ESSM and subgroup method with benchmark MCNP results. The new method yields substantially improved results for both spatially dependent reaction rates and eigenvalues for typical pressurized water reactor pin cell cases with uniform and nonuniform fuel temperature profiles. The new method is also proved effective in treating assembly heterogeneity and complex material composition such as mixed oxide fuel, where resonance interference is much more intense.
