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Division Spotlight
Young Members Group
The Young Members Group works to encourage and enable all young professional members to be actively involved in the efforts and endeavors of the Society at all levels (Professional Divisions, ANS Governance, Local Sections, etc.) as they transition from the role of a student to the role of a professional. It sponsors non-technical workshops and meetings that provide professional development and networking opportunities for young professionals, collaborates with other Divisions and Groups in developing technical and non-technical content for topical and national meetings, encourages its members to participate in the activities of the Groups and Divisions that are closely related to their professional interests as well as in their local sections, introduces young members to the rules and governance structure of the Society, and nominates young professionals for awards and leadership opportunities available to members.
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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May 2025
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Nuclear Science and Engineering
July 2025
Nuclear Technology
June 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
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
Tyler Sumner, Anton Moisseytsev, Daniel O’Grady, Lander Ibarra, Christopher Keckler, Justin Thomas, Thomas Fanning, Carlo Parisi, Nolan Anderson, Frederick Gleicher, SuJong Yoon
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 196 | Number 1 | October 2022 | Pages S289-S308
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2022.2053487
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Versatile Test Reactor (VTR) is a fast spectrum test reactor currently being developed in the United States under the direction of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy. Safety analysis of the conceptual VTR design is being performed using the SAS4A/SASSYS-1 fast reactor safety analysis code with a model representing the reactor core, primary and secondary heat transport systems, reactor vessel auxiliary cooling system, and reactor protection system. The system’s response and safety performance are being evaluated for a wide spectrum of event initiators and accident sequences. This paper presents an overview of the activities that are ongoing in support of the modeling and analysis of safety basis events (SBEs) in the VTR, including the VTR SAS4A/SASSYS-1 model development, an overview of the SAS4A/SASSYS-1 verification and validation efforts, and a summary of key model development activities to improve the predictive capability of the code. A summary of the results and an analysis of several key SBEs are also presented. VTR authorization from the U.S. Department of Energy will require transient simulations that are demonstrated to be accurate.
