ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
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Division Spotlight
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
Meeting Spotlight
2025 ANS Annual Conference
June 15–18, 2025
Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott 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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Nuclear Science and Engineering
July 2025
Nuclear Technology
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Latest News
Smarter waste strategies: Helping deliver on the promise of advanced nuclear
At COP28, held in Dubai in 2023, a clear consensus emerged: Nuclear energy must be a cornerstone of the global clean energy transition. With electricity demand projected to soar as we decarbonize not just power but also industry, transport, and heat, the case for new nuclear is compelling. More than 20 countries committed to tripling global nuclear capacity by 2050. In the United States alone, the Department of Energy forecasts that the country’s current nuclear capacity could more than triple, adding 200 GW of new nuclear to the existing 95 GW by mid-century.
S. Gross, D. Vollath
Nuclear Technology | Volume 42 | Number 3 | March 1979 | Pages 264-271
Technical Paper | Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT79-A32180
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Out-of-pile experiments were performed on fuel configurations, having a geometry similar to that of reactor fuel elements to study the thermal interaction between molten UO2 and subcooled sodium. The fragmented fuel generated was investigated by means of a scanning electron microscope. The composition of the fuel particles and the test results, especially the pressure pulses measured, lead to the following conclusions concerning the processes taking place. The liquid fuel escaping from the fuel rods has already been coarsely dispersed by the escaping filling gas. Finer fragmentation is mainly caused by two factors. The first are mechanical stresses occurring while the pieces solidify; the shell-shaped particles show that liquid fuel had been expelled from the interior of the pieces during the process of solidification. Second, coarser pieces of fuel were fragmented by small amounts of penetrating liquid sodium that was superheated and subsequently evaporated. The measured pressure pulses are due to rapid evaporation of this entrapped sodium.
