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
Jan 2026
Jul 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
January 2026
Nuclear Technology
December 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
November 2025
Latest News
2025: The year in nuclear
As Nuclear News has done since 2022, we have compiled a review of the nuclear news that filled headlines and sparked conversations in the year just completed. Departing from the chronological format of years past, we open with the most impactful news of 2025: a survey of actions and orders of the Trump administration that are reshaping nuclear research, development, deployment, and commercialization. We then highlight some of the top news in nuclear restarts, new reactor testing programs, the fuel supply chain and broader fuel cycle, and more.
Jerry E. Dick, Vijay I. Nath, Erl Kohn, Thomas K. Min, Soedi Prawirosoehardjo
Nuclear Technology | Volume 90 | Number 2 | May 1990 | Pages 155-167
Technical Paper | Nuclear Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT90-A34411
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The CANDU-6 nuclear reactor is a 600-MW(elec-tric) channel reactor in which natural uranium fuel is located in channels and surrounded by three separate water systems containing a total of ∼900 000 kg of water. Its four steam generators contain an additional 129000 kg of water. A recent study of a dominant core melt category indicates that this abundance of water effectively retards the melt progression and mitigates accident consequences. The inventory of all three water systems plus that of the steam generators must boil off before the core’s calandria vessel is breached. The steam produced from this boiloff vents to the containment atmosphere where it enhances passive heat removal on surfaces, promotes rapid aerosol settling by condensation on airborne particles, and reduces the concentration and flammability of the hydrogen generated. Breach of the calandria vessel allows molten core to enter a thick-walled concrete calandria vault. The resulting core/concrete reaction penetrates the calandria vault floor ∼2½ days after the beginning of the accident. Core debris, well diluted by decomposition products, then falls into an estimated 2 000 000 kg of water in the reactor basement. This water quenches and disperses the debris and essentially terminates the event sequence. Continuing decay heat is dissipated by minor steaming and by heat transfer through the basement floor and walls into the surrounding bedrock.