ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Division Spotlight
Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver 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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Apr 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
TerraPower begins U.K. regulatory approval process
Seattle-based TerraPower signaled its interest this week in building its Natrium small modular reactor in the United Kingdom, the company announced.
TerraPower sent a letter to the U.K.’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, formally establishing its intention to enter the U.K. generic design assessment (GDA) process. This is TerraPower’s first step in deployment of its Natrium technology—a 345-MW sodium fast reactor coupled with a molten salt energy storage unit—on the international stage.
Satish Kumar Dhurandhar, S. L. Sinha, Shashi Kant Verma
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 198 | Number 10 | October 2024 | Pages 1965-1983
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2023.2280350
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A grid spacer with a vane is an influential segment in reactor fuel channels. A vane produces significant effects on flow mixing and augmentation of heat transfer in subchannnels. The purpose of this work was to do a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis on the effects of a grid spacer vane on the thermal-hydraulic performance of fluid in a 5×5 fuel channel. A square array of a 5×5 fuel channel was used for this analysis with a pitch–to–rod diameter ratio of 1.33 and a blockage ratio of the grid spacer of 0.16. The relative study was made for the thermal-hydraulic performance among a grid spacer with a vane, a grid spacer (without a vane), and without a grid spacer (bare bundle). Analyses were made for fluid pressure of 15.5 MPa, inlet temperature of 583 K, and velocity of 4.74 m/s. The SST k-ω and RNG k-ε turbulence models were used to analyze flow phenomena and thermal performance. CFD results were validated with experiment data and were also compared with correlations proposed by researchers. The results were analyzed by different methods such as data curves, streamlines, and vector and contour plots. The results show that the strong characteristics of swirl flow in subchannels cause a greater mixing rate of turbulent flow, which hence improves heat transfer performance. The swirl ratio was observed maximum close downstream to a grid spacer with a vane. Grid spacer effects on heat transfer were noticed from z/Dh = 0 to 20 in downstream.
