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.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Apr 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
May 2025
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.
T. Gary Broughton, N. G. Trikouros
Nuclear Technology | Volume 61 | Number 2 | May 1983 | Pages 253-259
Technical Paper | Second International RETRAN Meeting / Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow | doi.org/10.13182/NT83-A33195
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The technical quality of procedures governing integrated nuclear power plant operation is influenced by knowledge of system, component, and operator interactions. This knowledge includes, in part, operating plant data and realistic simulations of plant operation. This same information can be used to develop training materials for teaching plant dynamic response to plant operators and engineering staffs. Realistic simulations of plant performance have been used to supplement existing plant data or to provide data where none existed. The simulations may cover events with durations in hours and may be required to consider unique plant conditions including actual core physics conditions, valve leakage, and auxiliary steam loads. In addition, it should be possible for the simulation to account for operator interaction and to provide the information operators would have available through plant instrumentation. Simulations using the RETRAN computer code have been used in the development of procedures and training materials. Procedure applications have included development and validation of general control philosophy and establishment of specific test conditions and setpoints. Training applications include development of materials for teaching general plant response, specific plant response during tests, and analysis of plant performance.