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Division Spotlight
Accelerator Applications
The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
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
Smarter waste strategies: Helping deliver on the promise of advanced nuclear
At COP28, held in Dubai in 2023, a clear consensus emerged: Nuclear energy must be a cornerstone of the global clean energy transition. With electricity demand projected to soar as we decarbonize not just power but also industry, transport, and heat, the case for new nuclear is compelling. More than 20 countries committed to tripling global nuclear capacity by 2050. In the United States alone, the Department of Energy forecasts that the country’s current nuclear capacity could more than triple, adding 200 GW of new nuclear to the existing 95 GW by mid-century.
Cornelis H. M. Broeders
Nuclear Technology | Volume 71 | Number 1 | October 1985 | Pages 96-110
Technical Paper | Fission Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT85-A33712
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The incentive of the Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe (KfK) advanced pressurized water reactor (APWR) investigations is the improvement of uranium utilization in a modem Federal Republic of Germany pressurized water reactor (PWR) by replacement of the core with a high converting one. The high conversion ratio is obtained by using mixed oxide (UPu)O2 in a tight light-water-moderated triangular lattice. The harder neutron spectrum leads to higher conversion ratios, to higher fissile enrichment and fissile inventories, and to worse reactivity behavior after coolant density changes. That means that core modification of the PWR shifts its neutron physics properties in the direction of fast reactor characteristics. The analysis of available calculational methods for fast and thermal reactors showed that neither the WIMS/D code, reliable for thermal reactors, nor the approved KAPROS fast reactor code can adequately predict the reactivity of an APWR in all configurations between normal and a totally voided core. A newly developed procedure, KARBUS, within the KAPROS fast reactor code system combines the advantageous features of thermal and fast reactor calculational methods. The preliminary validation for fast, epithermal, and thermal lattices, including burnup behavior, indicates that KARBUS is an adequate tool for the APWR investigations at present. Improvements in the detailed analysis of a final APWR design and of APWR neutron physics experiments in progress are briefly discussed. Parametric calculations for a simplified model indicate that current KfK proposals for homogeneous and heterogeneous APWR cores are nearly optimum concerning the competitive properties conversion ratio and void effect in a critical core poisoned by reactor control or by fission products.
