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Division Spotlight
Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
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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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
Nicolo’ Abrate, Sandra Dulla, Piero Ravetto, Paolo Saracco
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 197 | Number 8 | August 2023 | Pages 2047-2071
Technical papers from: PHYSOR 2022 | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2022.2134685
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The adoption of multiplication eigenvalue is a well-established approach for the design of nuclear reactors. However, despite its popularity and nice physico-mathematical properties, this eigenvalue formulation is not able to provide quantitative information about what parameters the designer has to modify. In this paper, a novel generalized eigenvalue formulation is introduced to disclose the full potential of the neutron transport equation for core design applications. To illustrate the advantages of this new design-oriented approach with respect to traditional methods, some relevant problems arising in the physics of reactors are solved, such as the determination of the absorber density in the control rods and of the fissile concentration in the molten salt fast reactor.
