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Division Spotlight
Thermal Hydraulics
The division provides a forum for focused technical dialogue on thermal hydraulic technology in the nuclear industry. Specifically, this will include heat transfer and fluid mechanics involved in the utilization of nuclear energy. It is intended to attract the highest quality of theoretical and experimental work to ANS, including research on basic phenomena and application to nuclear system design.
Meeting Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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
Take steps on SNF and HLW disposal
Matt Bowen
With a new administration and Congress, it is time once again to ponder what will happen—if anything—on U.S. spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste management policy over the next few years. One element of the forthcoming discussion seems clear: The executive and legislative branches are eager to talk about recycling commercial SNF. Whatever the merits of doing so, it does not obviate the need for one or more facilities for disposal of remaining long-lived radionuclides. For that reason, making progress on U.S. disposal capabilities remains urgent, lest the associated radionuclide inventories simply be left for future generations to deal with.
In March, Rick Perry, who was secretary of energy during President Trump’s first administration, observed that during his tenure at the Department of Energy it became clear to him that any plan to move SNF “required some practical consent of the receiving state and local community.”1
Stojan Petelin, Borut Mavko, Bostjan Koncar, Yassin A. Hassan
Nuclear Technology | Volume 158 | Number 1 | April 2007 | Pages 56-68
Technical Paper | Best Estimate Methods | doi.org/10.13182/NT07-A3824
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper provides a scaling methodology that was applied for scaling of the BETHSY integral test facility to the real nuclear power plant (NPP). The similarity of physical phenomena between the BETHSY experimental facility and the scaled-up model (representation of the real NPP) was analyzed on the small-break loss-of-coolant accident (SBLOCA) scenario. A comprehensive numerical analysis using the RELAP5 thermal-hydraulic code was performed to evaluate the optimal scaling-up of the BETHSY facility to the real NPP. In order to investigate the phenomenological scaling-up basis, two enlarged RELAP5 input models were constructed, differing in scaling criteria for the primary cooling system: proportional volume scaling and scaling based on the Froude number. A better agreement with the physical phenomena of the SBLOCA experiment was achieved in the case of proportional volume scaling. In addition, scaling of heat structures was also analyzed. It was shown that the best predictions of the transient phenomena were obtained when the heat structures were scaled according to the tensile stress criterion.