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Division Spotlight
Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
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
Commercial nuclear innovation "new space" age
In early 2006, a start-up company launched a small rocket from a tiny island in the Pacific. It exploded, showering the island with debris. A year later, a second launch attempt sent a rocket to space but failed to make orbit, burning up in the atmosphere. Another year brought a third attempt—and a third failure. The following month, in September 2008, the company used the last of its funds to launch a fourth rocket. It reached orbit, making history as the first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to do so.
Adam R. Wheeler, Andrew C. Klein
Nuclear Technology | Volume 188 | Number 1 | October 2014 | Pages 45-62
Technical Paper | Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-100
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The purpose of this study was to design a robust test facility for a small space nuclear power system and model its physical behavior under different scenarios. The test facility will be used to simulate a 1- to 10-kW(electric) nuclear reactor, its electrical generation, and heat removal capabilities. This simulator will be used to explore, test, and understand the steady-state and transient operation capabilities of small space nuclear power systems. Currently, the system is planned to operate on a variable, electrical heat source directly connected to heat pipes. The heat pipes are to be stainless steel with a water working fluid. These heat pipes will then be connected to a power conversion simulator or actual power conversion technologies. The power conversion simulator is connected to a radiator using a water-based heat pipe network using fins and connecting plates in a cylindrical geometry. Modeling of the facility was performed using the SolidWorks Flow Simulation package. Flow Simulation was used to analyze startup, heat pipe failures, and loss of power conversion with the end goal of finding safe operational transient scenarios for the transient test facility.