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.
Division Spotlight
Materials Science & Technology
The objectives of MSTD are: promote the advancement of materials science in Nuclear Science Technology; support the multidisciplines which constitute it; encourage research by providing a forum for the presentation, exchange, and documentation of relevant information; promote the interaction and communication among its members; and recognize and reward its members for significant contributions to the field of materials science in nuclear technology.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
May 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Securing the advanced reactor fleet
Physical protection accounts for a significant portion of a nuclear power plant’s operational costs. As the U.S. moves toward smaller and safer advanced reactors, similar protection strategies could prove cost prohibitive. For tomorrow’s small modular reactors and microreactors, security costs must remain appropriate to the size of the reactor for economical operation.
Te-Chuan Wang, Shih-Jen Wang, Jyh-Tong Teng
Nuclear Technology | Volume 156 | Number 2 | November 2006 | Pages 133-139
Technical Paper | Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT06-A3779
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
After the Three Mile Island accident, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission requested that nuclear power plants (NPPs) in the United States provide instruments to record reactor water levels. The instruments will improve reliability in diagnosing the approach of inadequate core cooling. The reactor vessel level indicating system (RVLIS) is a measuring system for determining the water level in the reactor vessel. RVLIS was installed at Maanshan NPP under this requirement. A station blackout (SBO) incident occurred in the Maanshan NPP on March 18, 2001. The SBO incident was simulated with the MELCOR 1.8.5 code. The important parameter, reactor vessel water level, was compared with plant data. The interesting phenomena about RVLIS responses included initial full water level above 100%, reactor pressure vessel (RPV) water shrinkage, and two peaks in upper range train A. The initial full water levels of the upper range were at ~112% because of calibration conditions. The two trains of the upper range dropped at ~1.2 h after SBO because of RPV water saturation. RVLIS upper range train A had two level rises after SBO because of two flows out of the pressurizer into the loop 2 hot leg. The results indicated that MELCOR could reproduce the RVLIS response very well.