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
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
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
Argonne’s METL gears up to test more sodium fast reactor components
Argonne National Laboratory has successfully swapped out an aging cold trap in the sodium test loop called METL (Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop), the Department of Energy announced April 23. The upgrade is the first of its kind in the United States in more than 30 years, according to the DOE, and will help test components and operations for the sodium-cooled fast reactors being developed now.
Charles E. Cartmill
Nuclear Technology | Volume 46 | Number 3 | December 1979 | Pages 422-427
Technical Paper | Nuclear Power Reactor Safety / Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT79-A32348
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A Semiscale Mod-1 blowdown heat transfer test was conducted to supply thermal-hydraulic data concerning the fluid phenomena that occur during a small break loss-of-coolant accident. While it is easily recognized that a large break suddenly releases a great volume of coolant with rapidly falling levels and pressures, emergency core injection will also occur very early, compared to a small break. There has been concern that the longer times involved in small breaks (much longer subcooled flow periods) could lead to effects worse than for large breaks. Within the scope of the testing conducted, the small break has proven to be of lower consequences than the large break.