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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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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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Latest News
Senate EPW Committee to hold Nieh nomination hearing
Nieh
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hold a nomination hearing Wednesday for Ho Nieh, President Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as commission at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Trump nominated Nieh on July 30 to serve as NRC commissioner the remainder of a term that will expire June 30, 2029, as Nuclear NewsWire previously reported.
Nieh has been vice president of regulatory affairs at Southern Nuclear since 2021, though since June 2024 he has been at the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations as a loaned executive.
A return to the NRC: If confirmed by the Senate, Nieh would be returning to the NRC after three previous stints totaling nearly 20 years.
Stephen M. Bajorek
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 184 | Number 3 | November 2016 | Pages 305-311
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE16-21
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An understanding of thermal hydraulics, its basic phenomena, and its application to nuclear power plants is vital to safe as well as efficient design and operation. Thermal hydraulics for two-phase flow and heat transfer with nuclear applications has been studied for roughly 50 years, and the current body of knowledge is extensive. Yet, there remain safety issues, and the licensing of new light water reactor designs or new analysis methodologies is rarely simple. This is due to the state of the art in reactor thermal hydraulics as well as the perspective that the regulator, in this case the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), has toward that field of study.
This paper discusses the state of the art in nuclear thermal hydraulics, the regulator’s unique role and perspective, and a view of current challenges. The discussion is meant to point out how the regulator’s perspective has been shaped and hopefully provide some guidance on fulfilling research needs for future applications that may need NRC review.