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.
Division Spotlight
Thermal Hydraulics
The division provides a forum for focused technical dialogue on thermal hydraulic technology in the nuclear industry. Specifically, this will include heat transfer and fluid mechanics involved in the utilization of nuclear energy. It is intended to attract the highest quality of theoretical and experimental work to ANS, including research on basic phenomena and application to nuclear system design.
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
Taichi Matsumura, Ryuji Nagaishi, Jun-ichi Katakura, Masahide Suzuki
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 192 | Number 1 | October 2018 | Pages 70-79
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2018.1493856
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In order to evaluate three-dimensional distributions of radionuclides with high precision from gamma-scanning profiles of adsorption vessels used for decontamination of radioactive water performed at severe accidents, gamma scanning of the submerged demineralizer system vessel at the Three Mile Island Unit 2 (TMI-2) accident was simulated in the axial and radial directions of real and cylindrical-shaped vessels using a Monte Carlo calculation code [Particle and Heavy Ion Transport Code System (PHITS)].
In the axial simulation, the true distribution of radioactive 137Cs in the zeolite packed bed of the vessel was successfully evaluated when a correction function derived from a virtual constant distribution of 137Cs was applied to the reported gamma-scanning profile. In the radial simulation, the virtual disk-formed and shell-formed sources of 137Cs displaced in the packed bed were clearly observed from the top and bottom views of the vessel. This new radial gamma scanning indicates that the radial localization of 137Cs could be well observed by measuring the gamma ray from the top view of the vessel during storage. Further, the radial gamma scanning from the side view and whether or not the radial localization of 137Cs can be confirmed in the normally existing gamma-scanning room were examined.
