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Access anywhere, anytime: Nuclear power, Ice Camp, and Rickover’s enduring standard of excellence
Admiral William Houston
As U.S. Navy submarines surface through Arctic ice during Ice Camp 2026, they demonstrate more than operational proficiency in one of the harshest environments on Earth. They reaffirm a technological truth first proven in August 1958, when the USS Nautilus completed its submerged transit of the North Pole: nuclear power enables access anywhere, anytime.
The Arctic is unforgiving, with vast distances, extreme cold, shifting ice, and no logistical infrastructure. Conventional propulsion is constrained by fuel, air, and endurance. Nuclear propulsion removes those constraints. Only a nuclear-powered submarine can operate anywhere in the world’s oceans, including under the polar ice, undetected and at maximum capability for extended periods. Nuclear power provides sustained high speed and the endurance to reposition across the globe without refueling.
Thomas K. S. Liang, Huan-Jen Hung, Chin-Jang Chang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 136 | Number 3 | December 2001 | Pages 292-300
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT01-A3246
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
With the consideration of mass unbalance, coolant shrinking, and compressibility, a model for reactor coolant leakage evaluation has been developed to quantify on-line the system leakage rate with conventional system measurements, regardless of where the leak occurs. This model has been derived from the system of total continuity, and it divides the reactor coolant system (RCS) into two regions, namely, the saturated and subcooled regions. The pressurizer is considered as a saturated region, and the remaining part of the RCS is regarded as a subcooled region. Taking the on-line measurements of the RCS including the RCS pressure, temperature, pressurizer water level, and charging and letdown flow rates, this model can directly evaluate on-line the RCS leakage rate. It is noted that this model is applicable only if the RCS remains subcooled. To verify the applicability of this model, data generated by RELAP5/MOD3 simulation and experimental measurements from the Institute of Nuclear Energy Research, Taiwan, Integral System Test Facility were adopted to assess this model. With further on-line verification against the Maanshan training simulator, this model was finally delivered to the Maanshan nuclear power plant (a three-looped Westinghouse pressurized water reactor) to assist the operator training and on-line evaluation of the RCS leakage rate. The smallest amount of leak flow that can be detected by the ROCK model is 3 gal/min.