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 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
Jan 2026
Jul 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
February 2026
Nuclear Technology
January 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
November 2025
Latest News
DOE saves $1.7M transferring robotics from Portsmouth to Oak Ridge
The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management said it has transferred four robotic demolition machines from the department’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio to Oak Ridge, Tenn., saving the office more than $1.7 million by avoiding the purchase of new equipment.
Yue Guan, Fei Li, Mohammad Modarres, David Bessette, Marino Dimarzo
Nuclear Technology | Volume 133 | Number 3 | March 2001 | Pages 269-289
Technical Paper | Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT01-A3174
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper presents an application of a thermal-hydraulic and probabilistic assessment (TH-PA) method to the Westinghouse Advanced Passive 600-MW(electric) (AP600) design. The Westinghouse probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) was used for screening probabilistically important scenarios only. Corresponding integrated-behavior-logic diagrams (IBLDs) were constructed, and accident trajectories were developed. Small cold-leg break accidents and direct vessel injection line break accidents were analyzed. Scenarios in which TH phenomena may play a major role, and which have the highest frequency of core uncovery and heatup were identified. Important insights were obtained. Application of this method to the AP600 has shown its value in prioritizing safety issues. Its application to the AP600 has been further ensured by (a) relying on the Westinghouse PRA to model functional/logical relationships of the components/systems, (b) using a peer review approach to validate the most important IBLDs, and (c) comparing accident trajectories with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission-sponsored AP600 experimental results. While this application has demonstrated effectiveness of the method in accident scenario screening for the AP600, the TH-PA method has broader potential.