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Radiation Protection & Shielding
The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
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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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Latest News
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
Md Saifur Rahman, Jie Ding, Ali Beheshti, Xinghang Zhang, Andreas A. Polycarpou
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 193 | Number 9 | September 2019 | Pages 998-1012
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2019.1582315
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This study investigates the friction and wear behavior of Inconel 617, one of the primary candidate materials for high-temperature gas-cooled nuclear reactors. Using a custom-built, high-temperature tribometer, a helium (He)-cooled reactor environment was simulated up to 950°C. To obtain a comprehensive understanding of the Inconel 617 tribological response, the effects of contact load, temperature, air and He environments, sliding speed, and sliding distance were studied. From the conditions investigated, the coefficient of friction and wear values are the highest in a high-temperature He atmosphere. Scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction techniques were used to analyze the Inconel 617 oxide layer. Analysis of the samples tested in the He atmosphere showed the presence of Cr-rich oxide with a lower presence of Co-Ni-Mo compared to the samples tested in air. Characterization also revealed the existence of a very hard protective glaze layer in air while such layer was not observed in the He environment, which was associated with higher wear/friction values.
