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Division Spotlight
Decommissioning & Environmental Sciences
The mission of the Decommissioning and Environmental Sciences (DES) Division is to promote the development and use of those skills and technologies associated with the use of nuclear energy and the optimal management and stewardship of the environment, sustainable development, decommissioning, remediation, reutilization, and long-term surveillance and maintenance of nuclear-related installations, and sites. The target audience for this effort is the membership of the Division, the Society, and the public at large.
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
Jordi Roglans-Ribas, Kemal Pasamehmetoglu, Thomas J. O’Connor
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 196 | Number 1 | October 2022 | Pages S1-S10
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2022.2035183
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The mission of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy is to advance nuclear power to meet the nation’s energy, environmental, and national security needs. Advanced nuclear technology development, as well as support for the current nuclear power industry, requires a robust infrastructure for experimentation, testing, design evolution, and component qualification. The current lack of fast neutron spectrum testing capabilities has been identified as a significant gap in the U.S. infrastructure that impedes the development of next-generation nuclear reactors—many of which require a fast neutron spectrum for operation—and equally impacts the United States’ ability to regain global technology leadership in this arena. To close the gap and support advanced technology development, the DOE has established the Versatile Test Reactor (VTR) project to provide high-performance testing capability, specifically, a fast neutron source to develop, test, and qualify advanced fuels and materials for the next generation of advanced reactors and existing commercial reactors. This paper describes the establishment of the project, the identification of its mission and requirements, and the design approach and status.