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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
H. Naik, S. P. Dange, R. J. Singh, W. Jang
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 197 | Number 4 | April 2023 | Pages 485-509
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2022.2133947
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The cumulative and independent yields of various fission products within the mass ranges of 78 to 108 and 123 to 155 have been measured in the thermal neutron–induced fission of 235U by using an off-line gamma-ray spectrometric technique. The post-neutron mass yield distribution was obtained from the cumulative yields after applying the charge distribution correction. The data from present and earlier work of our laboratory in the 235U(nth,f) reaction were compared with similar data of 229Th(nth,f), 245Cm(nth,f), and 252Cf(SF) reactions to examine the fine structure in the mass yield distribution for four different even-even fissioning systems with charge of 90 to 98. The comparison shows that the fine structure in the mass yield distribution depends on spherical and deformed neutron shell combinations. The shell combination favors the standard I asymmetric mode of fission in the 235U(nth,f) and 245Cm(nth,f) reactions, whereas it favors the standard II asymmetric mode of fission in the 229Th(nth,f) and 252Cf(SF) reactions.