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.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
Mar 2026
Jul 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
March 2026
Nuclear Technology
February 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
April 2026
Latest News
NRC approves TerraPower construction permit
Today, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced that it has approved TerraPower’s construction permit application for Kemmerer Unit 1, the company’s first deployment of Natrium, its flagship sodium fast reactor.
This approval is a significant milestone on three fronts. For TerraPower, it represents another step forward in demonstrating its technology. For the Department of Energy, it reflects progress (despite delays) for the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP). For the NRC, it is the first approval granted to a commercial reactor in nearly a decade—and the first approval of a commercial non–light water reactor in more than 40 years.
Om Pal Singh, P. Bhaskar Rao
Nuclear Technology | Volume 71 | Number 2 | November 1985 | Pages 411-416
Technical Paper | Nuclear Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT85-A33693
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The core disruptive accident (CDA) analysis of liquid-metal fast breeder reactors is often performed using the saturated vapor pressure equation of state for the fuel. However, during the transient heating of the fuel in a voided core in the disassembly phase of CDAs, the fuel vapor pressure buildup may lag behind the temperature rise and thus may lead to the delayed disassembly of the core and the consequent large energy release. The formulations for such transient vapor pressure buildup and the results on the dynamics of fuel vapor pressure during the transient heating and its influence on the thermal energy release in a CDA are presented. The energy release calculations have been performed by incorporating the present formalism in the disassembly analysis code VENUS-II. In view of the uncertainties in some of the physical parameters, a parametric study was conducted to evaluate the effects of such uncertainties in their values on the results. These results are discussed in detail.