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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.
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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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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.
Zhiwen Xu, Yasuyuki Otsuka, Pavel Hejzlar, Mujid S. Kazimi, Michael J. Driscoll
Nuclear Technology | Volume 160 | Number 1 | October 2007 | Pages 63-79
Technical Paper | Annular Fuel | doi.org/10.13182/NT07-A3884
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Compared to the traditional solid fuel pin, annular fuel with internal as well as external coolant flow increases the cooling surface by ~50%, which allows a higher core power density. However, operating at high power density introduces challenges in the core physics design of burnable poison to suit the desired fuel cycle length. In this paper, both the fuel cycle length and the number of reload fresh fuel assemblies are assumed to remain the same as current industry practice (18-month cycle and three-batch fuel management), which in turn requires >5 wt% fuel enrichment for the 150% power core. Alternative fuel cycles are discussed. Pressurized water reactor cores with annular fuel are designed using the state-of-the-art Studsvik Scandpower core modeling package including CASMO-4, TABLES-3, and SIMULATE-3. Two power levels are considered for the core design based on annular fuel: 100 and 150% of the rated power. The reactivity feedback effects of the annular fuel are shown to be comparable to those of solid fuel. The 150% power core with annular fuel shows considerable resemblance to traditional high-energy cores.