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Division Spotlight
Nuclear Installations Safety
Devoted specifically to the safety of nuclear installations and the health and safety of the public, this division seeks a better understanding of the role of safety in the design, construction and operation of nuclear installation facilities. The division also promotes engineering and scientific technology advancement associated with the safety of such facilities.
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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February 2024
Latest News
Can hydrogen be the transportation fuel in an otherwise nuclear economy?
Let’s face it: The global economy should be powered primarily by nuclear power. And it probably will by the end of this century, with a still-significant assist from renewables and hydro. Once nuclear systems are dominant, the costs come down to where gas is now; and when carbon emissions are reduced to a small portion of their present state, it will become obvious that most other sources are only good in niche settings. I mean, why use small modular reactors to load-follow when they can just produce that power instead of buffering it?
Hirokazu Ohta, Takanari Ogata, Toru Obara
Nuclear Technology | Volume 187 | Number 2 | August 2014 | Pages 198-207
Regular Technical Paper | Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-105
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Innovative fuel design measures to attain a much higher burnup than that obtained using the conventional concept were investigated for a fast reactor (FR) metal fuel. Considering the typical mechanism of metal fuel degradation, three innovative design measures were proposed: (a) a decrease in plenum pressure by adopting the fission gas vent design, (b) prevention of fuel-cladding chemical interaction by lining the cladding inner wall, and (c) mitigation of fuel-cladding mechanical interaction by reducing the fuel smear density. The effects of these design measures on increasing the burnup were analyzed with ALFUS, an irradiation behavior analysis code for FR metal fuels. The ALFUS analysis revealed that a very high burnup of >40 at. % can be attained under the conventional design criteria for securing fuel integrity by applying these innovative measures. Neutronic analysis of a metal fuel core employing these design measures indicated that a high burnup of >40 at. % at the assembly peak can be attained while suppressing the burnup reactivity swing to almost the same level as that of conventional cores with normal burnup through the use of a minor actinide–containing fuel.