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Aerospace Nuclear Science & Technology
Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
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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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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.
Mark P. Paulsen, John G. Shatford, John L. Westacott, Lance J. Agee
Nuclear Technology | Volume 100 | Number 2 | November 1992 | Pages 162-173
Technical Paper | Nuclear Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT92-A34739
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Boiling water reactors (BWRs) are susceptible to thermal-hydraulic instabilities that must be considered in BWR design and operation. Early BWRs were designed to be very stable while operating under natural-circulation conditions. As reactor designs have been modified, stability margins have been reduced, and the potential for stability events, such as occurred at the La Salle and Vermont Yankee plants, has increased. These events and other considerations point to the need for a reliable analysis tool for predicting the dynamic behavior of these events. Transient thermal-hydraulic systems analysis codes have been used to analyze hydrodynamic instabilities, and although the results are often reasonable and exhibit the expected behavior, they are sensitive to changes in node and time-step size, and a converged solution cannot be demonstrated by reducing the node and time-step sizes. This sensitivity is due to numerical diffusion that limits the use of most time domain system analysis codes for BWR stability analyses since it directly affects the decay (or growth) ratio computed for stability events. A conservation equation transport model using the method of characteristics has been developed for use with the RETRAN-03 mixture energy and vapor continuity equations. The model eliminates numerical diffusion in the RETRAN solution. The development and validation of a conservation equation transport model for the RETRAN-03 time domain thermal-hydraulic analysis code that extends the range of application to simulating the dynamic behavior of stability events are presented. RETRAN-03 analyses are presented that compare simulations of hydrodynamic instability events with data.