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Division Spotlight
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
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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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.
Bassam I. Shamoun, Michael L. Corradini
Nuclear Technology | Volume 115 | Number 1 | July 1996 | Pages 35-45
Technical Paper | Nuclear Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT96-A35273
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Experimental observation has shown that the assumption of complete fuel fragmentation in a vapor explosion by the shock adiabatic thermodynamic model results in predicting upper bounds for the shock pressure, propagation velocity, and work output. This model has been modified by considering the condition where the assumption of complete fragmentation of the fuel is relaxed. A methodology is adopted using experimental values of the shock pressure and propagation velocity to estimate the initial mixture conditions of the experiment and the mass fraction of the materials participating in the explosion. Analysis of a steady-state subcritical vapor explosion in one dimension has been carried out by applying the conservation laws of mass, momentum, and energy and the appropriate equation of state for a homogeneous mixture of molten tin and water. The KROTOS-21 experiment, conducted at the Joint Research Center at Ispra, Italy, was used as the initial benchmark experiment in this analysis. A quasisteady explosion pressure of ∼3 MPa and a propagation velocity of ∼200 m/s were obtained in this experiment. Using this model, the estimated minimum mass of the fragmented fuel was found to be 0.21 kg (3.2%) of the total mass of the fuel. The predicted work output by this model corresponding to the aforementioned fragmented fuel mass was found to be 9.8 kJ. The estimated initial void fraction of the vapor was found to be 11.5%. In these analyses, a comparison is made of the various possible closure relations applied to the detonation wave theory for a vapor explosion and associated concerns of model stability in the two-phase region.
