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
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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
Aug 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
September 2025
Nuclear Technology
August 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Ho Nieh nominated to the NRC
Nieh
President Trump recently nominated Ho Nieh for the role of commissioner in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission through the remainder of a term that will expire June 30, 2029.
Nieh has been the vice president of regulatory affairs at Southern Nuclear since 2021, though he is currently working as a loaned executive at the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations, where he has been for more than a year.
Nieh’s experience: Nieh started his career at the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, where he worked primarily as a nuclear plant engineer and contributed as a civilian instructor in the U.S. Navy’s Nuclear Power Program.
From there, he joined the NRC in 1997 as a project engineer. In more than 19 years of service at the organization, he served in a variety of key leadership roles, including division director of Reactor Projects, division director of Inspection and Regional Support, and director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
Timothy S. Roth, A. Biancheria
Nuclear Technology | Volume 77 | Number 1 | April 1987 | Pages 50-59
Technical Paper | Material | doi.org/10.13182/NT87-A33951
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A computer graphics technique was used to measure cracks and other features of mixed-oxide fuel ceramographs to provide information useful for the modeling of fuel cracking and fragment movement. These measurements provided qualitative and quantitative information in several areas: crack formation and fuel-fragment movement, fuel-cladding gap size, crack size, crack orientation, radial distribution of crack porosity, and change in fuel volume (referred to as total fuel swelling) as a function of oxygen-to-metal ratio (O/M) and burnup. Examination of the ceramographs indicated that a crack starts on a free surface and propogates until it reaches another free surface. Thus, the first crack extends from one side of the fuel to the other, and succeeding cracks terminate on existing cracks or on the fuel surface. While crack formation was found to be independent of O/M, differences in crack healing at moderate power (19 kW/m) and high burnup (12 at.%) lead to a predominance of radial cracks for high O/M (∼1.96) fuel and both radial and circumferential cracks for low O/M (∼1.92) fuel. The different effects of circumferential and radial cracks on fuel behavior produce smaller postirradiation fuel-cladding gaps and larger cracks in the lower O/M fuel pins. Fuel swelling at intermediate burnup (∼8 at. %) is independent of O/M, but at high burnup (∼12 at. Vo) lower O/M fuel swells more. This swelling behavior may be related to a similar O/M dependence of retained fission gas.