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Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Division Spotlight
Aerospace Nuclear Science & Technology
Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
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!
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Latest News
ANS designates Armour Research Foundation Reactor as Nuclear Historic Landmark
The American Nuclear Society presented the Illinois Institute of Technology with a plaque last week to officially designate the Armour Research Foundation Reactor a Nuclear Historic Landmark, following the Society’s decision to confer the status onto the reactor in September 2024.
John R. Weeks
Nuclear Technology | Volume 28 | Number 3 | March 1976 | Pages 348-355
Technical Paper | Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT76-A31517
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The lnconel-600 tubing in operating pressurized water reactor (PWR) steam generators has developed leaks due to intergranular stress corrosion cracking or a general wastage attack, originating from the secondary side of the tubing. Corrosion has been limited to those areas of the steam generators where limited secondary coolant circulation and high heat flux have caused impurities to concentrate. Wastage or pitting attack has always been associated with local concentration of sodium hydrogen phosphates, whereas stress corrosion has been associated with local concentration of sodium or potassium hydroxides. The only instance of stress corrosion originating from the primary side occurred on cold-worked tubing when hydrogen was not added to getter oxygen, and LiOH was not added to raise the pH of the primary coolant. All U.S. PWR manufacturers are now recommending an all-volatile treatment of the secondary coolant, whereas many plants operated until recently using a phosphate treatment. Experience in operating plants has shown, however, that removal of phosphate-rich sludge deposits is difficult, and that further wastage and/or intergranular stress corrosion can develop; the residual sodium phosphates gradually convert by reaction with corrosion product hydroxides to sodium hydroxide, which remains concentrated in the limited flow areas. Improvements in circulation patterns have been achieved by inserting flow baffles in some PWR steam generators. Inservice monitoring by eddy current techniques, as recommended in U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Regulatory Guide 1.83, is useful for detecting corrosion-induced defects in the tubing, but irreproducibility in field examinations can lead to uncertainties in interpreting the results.