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.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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
Dec 2025
Jul 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
December 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
November 2025
Latest News
Modernizing I&C for operations and maintenance, one phase at a time
The two reactors at Dominion Energy’s Surry plant are among the oldest in the U.S. nuclear fleet. Yet when the plant celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2023, staff could raise a toast to the future. Surry was one of the first plants to file a subsequent license renewal (SLR) application, and in May 2021, it became official: the plant was licensed to operate for a full 80 years, extending its reactors’ lifespans into 2052 and 2053.
Constantine P. Tzanos, B. Dionne
Nuclear Technology | Volume 179 | Number 3 | September 2012 | Pages 382-391
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT12-A14170
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
To support the safety analysis of the conversion of the BR2 research reactor to low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel and extend the validation basis of the RELAP code for the analysis of the conversion of research reactors from highly enriched (HEU) fuel to LEU, the simulation of BR2 tests A/400/1, C/600/3, and F/400/1 was undertaken. These tests are characterized by loss of flow initiated at different reactor power levels with or without loss of system pressure, reactor scram, flow reversal, and reactor cooling by natural circulation. This work presents the RELAP analysis of tests C/600/3 and F/400/1 and comparison of code predictions with experimental measurements for peak cladding temperatures during the transient at different axial locations in an instrumented fuel assembly. The simulations show that accurate representation of the power distribution, especially after reactor scram, between the fuel assemblies and the moderator/reflector regions is critical for the correct prediction of the peak cladding temperatures during the transient. Detailed MCNP and ORIGEN simulations were performed to compute the power distribution between the fuel assemblies and the moderator/reflector regions. With these distributions the predicted peak cladding temperatures are in good agreement with experimental measurements.
