ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
Apr 2026
Jan 2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2026
Nuclear Technology
March 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Fusion research tackles fuel and instrumentation challenges
Three research groups are reporting fusion-related developments, including ongoing work toward spin-polarized fusion, a new plasma diagnostic tool heading to the National Ignition Facility, and a materials science project that could impact the design of inertial confinement fusion fuel targets.
Khaled Meftah, Arthur E. Ruggles
Nuclear Technology | Volume 154 | Number 3 | June 2006 | Pages 328-334
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT06-A3737
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A scaled model boiling water reactor (SMBWR) uses water at 0.095 MPa in a transparent heated channel 0.5 m in length with four electrical heated fuel simulator rods. The axial void profile in the channel is measured using conductivity probes. The boiling channel exhibits bubbly and churn flow regimes. In the present study, the bubbly-churn regime transition is investigated using the variance, kurtosis, and skewness of the probability density function (pdf) derived from the conductivity measurements. The positioning of five conductivity sensors along the boiling water channel allows examination of the gradual changes in the flow regime characteristics. The results indicate it is possible to detect the bubbly-to-churn flow regime transition using the pdf distribution attributes of the conductivity probes.