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
Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
Meeting Spotlight
Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
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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Nuclear Science and Engineering
September 2024
Nuclear Technology
August 2024
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Taking shape: Fusion energy ecosystems built with public-private partnerships
It’s possible to describe fusion in simple terms: heat and squeeze small atoms to get abundant clean energy. But there’s nothing simple about getting fusion ready for the grid.
Private developers, national lab and university researchers, suppliers, and end users working toward that goal are developing a range of complex technologies to reach fusion temperatures and pressures, confounded by science and technology gaps linked to plasma behavior; materials, diagnostics, and electronics for extreme environments; fuel cycle sustainability; and economics.
J. W. Fricano, J. Buongiorno
Nuclear Technology | Volume 184 | Number 1 | October 2013 | Pages 63-77
Technical Paper | Fuel Design/Defects/Examination / Materials for Nuclear Fuels | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-A19869
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A metal fuel performance code was coupled to a subchannel analysis code to predict, in a computationally efficient way, critical phenomena that could lead to pin failure for steady-state and transient scenarios in sodium-cooled fast reactors. The fuel performance and subchannel codes coupled are FEAST-METAL and an updated version of COBRA-IV-I, respectively. In coupling the codes, the importance of azimuthal temperature and stress effects in the fuel pin were analyzed; it was concluded that azimuthal temperature averaging around the fuel pin is an acceptable approximation. The codes were coupled using a wrapper, the COBRA And FEAST Executer (CAFE), written in the Python programming language. Data from EBR-II was used to confirm and verify CAFE. Finally, CAFE was used to predict the maximum allowable burnup of three different fuel assembly designs (driver fuel, radial blanket, and tight-pitch breed-and-burn fuel) as a function of operating temperature, linear power, fuel composition, cladding thickness, and smear density.