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Accelerator Applications
The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
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2025 ANS Annual Conference
June 15–18, 2025
Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott Downtown
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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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ANS announces 2025 Presidential Citations
One of the privileges of being president of the American Nuclear Society is awarding Presidential Citations to individuals who have demonstrated outstanding effort in some manner for the benefit of ANS or the nuclear community at large. Citations are conferred twice each year, at the Annual and Winter Meetings.
ANS President Lisa Marshall has named this season’s recipients, who will receive recognition at the upcoming Annual Conference in Chicago during the Special Session on Tuesday, June 17.
Franco Polidoro, Michael Flad, Werner Maschek
Nuclear Technology | Volume 191 | Number 3 | September 2015 | Pages 246-253
Technical Paper | Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT14-97
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In the case of a severe accident in a core resulting from unprotected loss of flow (ULOF) or unprotected transient overpower, damage can propagate from subassembly to subassembly and produce a whole-core–scale molten pool. Because the core is not in its most reactive configuration, a massive collapse of the molten material could result in a rapid supercritical condition with release of a large amount of energy. However, timely and sufficient fuel relocation outside the core by dedicated means could prevent any risk of recriticality and accident escalation. Based on a reference 1500-MW(electric) sodium-cooled fast reactor design, this paper describes the main results obtained in evaluating the recriticality potential of the European Sodium Fast Reactor (ESFR) core and conditions for its elimination during a ULOF-type transient. This study has been carried out in the frame of the Collaborative Project on European Sodium Fast Reactor of the 7th Framework Programme Euratom. The numerical analyses carried out in the present work allow one to estimate the amount of fuel mass that has to be removed from the core in order to maintain it in subcritical conditions, preventing the formation of a critical pool. Requirements for successful application of this approach, in terms of the negative reactivity insertion rate by fuel relocation and timing of discharge from the core, are derived.