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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
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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
X-energy receives federal tax credit for TRISO fuel facility
Advanced reactor company X-energy has been awarded $148.5 million in tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act for construction of its TRISO-X fuel fabrication facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Acacia Brunett, Richard Denning, Tunc Aldemir
Nuclear Technology | Volume 186 | Number 2 | May 2014 | Pages 198-215
Technical Paper | Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-40
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The risk-dominant containment failure modes of a pressurized water reactor are reassessed using the current state of knowledge for the phenomena that contribute to these failure modes. Our review concludes that some mechanisms that were considered as having the potential to result in containment failure at the time of NUREG-1150, such as in-vessel steam explosions and vessel launch (i.e., the alpha-mode containment failure), have subsequently undergone sufficient review and can be excluded from further consideration. For other phenomena, such as high-pressure melt ejection (HPME) and combustible gas explosions, our review concludes that substantial uncertainties still exist with regard to modeling in system level codes; for combustion events, careful consideration is still required when making severe accident management decisions. With regard to HPME, sensitivity studies have been performed with the MELCOR computer code to address the effects of modeling uncertainties on containment loading. Sensitivity studies using MELCOR have also been performed with regard to combustion events to examine gas generation, the effect of containment cooling on the potential for deflagrations, and the combustion load on containment. Combustion loads are compared to the NUREG-1150 containment fragility curve to assess the likelihood of containment failure. Our MELCOR analyses agree with the NUREG-1150 assumption that insufficient hydrogen is generated in-vessel to result in containment failure. Sensitivity studies regarding the rate and timing of reflooding a degraded core do not indicate a significant effect on hydrogen production in-vessel or a significant challenge to containment integrity regarding HPME. However, it is observed that recovery actions resulting in cooling of the containment atmosphere could result in deinerting the containment and lead to a sufficiently energetic combustion event that can fail the containment.