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
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
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
Proving DRACO will deliver
The United States is now closer than it has been in over five decades to launching the first nuclear thermal rocket into space, thanks to DRACO—the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Orbit.
Pavel Hejzlar, Mujid S. Kazimi
Nuclear Technology | Volume 160 | Number 1 | October 2007 | Pages 2-15
Technical Paper | Annular Fuel | doi.org/10.13182/NT160-2-15
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Nuclear energy technology has to evolve continuously toward two goals: reduction of the cost of power plants and increasing their safety margins. One approach that can enhance both the economics and safety performance is the adoption of new fuel geometries that increase the fuel surface-to-volume ratio in the core. This will facilitate heat transfer to coolant at lower fuel temperatures. This paper reviews the methodology applied to develop an appropriate design of an innovative internally and externally cooled annular fuel for high-power-density pressurized water reactors (PWRs). It provides an overview of key results obtained during a U.S. Department of Energy-sponsored project that addressed thermal hydraulics, reactor physics, fuel manufacturing, and fuel performance characterization. Using this fuel, it is shown that power density uprates up to 150% can be achieved in PWRs while maintaining or improving the safety margins. If this is applied to future reactors, significant economic advantages can be realized. Even when the power level is maintained close to what it is in existing power reactors, the annular fuel will greatly enhance safety and facilitate higher burnup of the fuel.