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Division Spotlight
Education, Training & Workforce Development
The Education, Training & Workforce Development Division provides communication among the academic, industrial, and governmental communities through the exchange of views and information on matters related to education, training and workforce development in nuclear and radiological science, engineering, and technology. Industry leaders, education and training professionals, and interested students work together through Society-sponsored meetings and publications, to enrich their professional development, to educate the general public, and to advance nuclear and radiological science and engineering.
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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Latest News
IAEA: Gunfire, drone attack at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
The International Atomic Energy Agency team at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP) reported hearing gunfire near the site this morning while a drone hit the plant’s training center.
In a news release today, IAEA director general Rafael Mariano Grossi said this is the third drone to target the training center, located just outside the site perimeter, so far this year. He called for an immediate end to drones being flown over or near nuclear facilities.
Didier Costes
Nuclear Technology | Volume 67 | Number 1 | October 1984 | Pages 169-177
Technical Note | Fission Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT84-A33539
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Sodium-cooled reactor vessels must not resist high pressures, and their walls are relatively thin. These vessels are usually suspended by their lateral wall to the cold roof slab. The upper part of this wall is subjected to periodic thermal stresses and to a permanent tension, corresponding to the weight of the sodium and of the components inside the vessel. In order to avoid a progressive deformation, the temperature of the vessel wall is limited to ∼400°C. This necessitates setting up relatively expensive baffles to isolate the wall from the hot sodium flowing out of the core. In order to relieve the wall from weight-related stresses, vessels resting on the installation basemat by means of sliding or articulated supports were proposed in early projects. A current design proposal consists of resting the vessel bottom on welded, concentric skirts, the chosen temperature of the bottom being relatively low; then a stable thermal gradient appears in sodium layers below the core. The corresponding heat flux lost toward the bottom proves remarkably low; an important simplification of the vessel walls and internal structures, as well as interesting safety features, may be obtained.