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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
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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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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
Prasad Vegendla, A. Bergeron, S. Mohanty, A. Talamo, F. Heidet, B. Ade, B. R. Betzler
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 196 | Number 12 | December 2022 | Pages 1572-1580
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2022.2123195
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This technical note deals with simulation-based design optimization for the ex-core Transformational Challenge Reactor (TCR). Three-dimensional geometry was created for the TCR ex-core. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were performed to optimize forced circulation airflow. The CFD model includes thermofluidic phenomena such as convective, conductive, and radiative heat transfer. The simulation results are presented for three different inlet coolant mass flow rates (2, 4, and 8 kg/s). The observed optimized flow rate for the base configuration was 5 kg/s. The calculated peak temperatures were within the safety limits for all components including the bio-shield (433 K) and the shroud mechanism (473 K).
