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Division Spotlight
Young Members Group
The Young Members Group works to encourage and enable all young professional members to be actively involved in the efforts and endeavors of the Society at all levels (Professional Divisions, ANS Governance, Local Sections, etc.) as they transition from the role of a student to the role of a professional. It sponsors non-technical workshops and meetings that provide professional development and networking opportunities for young professionals, collaborates with other Divisions and Groups in developing technical and non-technical content for topical and national meetings, encourages its members to participate in the activities of the Groups and Divisions that are closely related to their professional interests as well as in their local sections, introduces young members to the rules and governance structure of the Society, and nominates young professionals for awards and leadership opportunities available to members.
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
Commercial nuclear innovation "new space" age
In early 2006, a start-up company launched a small rocket from a tiny island in the Pacific. It exploded, showering the island with debris. A year later, a second launch attempt sent a rocket to space but failed to make orbit, burning up in the atmosphere. Another year brought a third attempt—and a third failure. The following month, in September 2008, the company used the last of its funds to launch a fourth rocket. It reached orbit, making history as the first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to do so.
Charalampos Andreades, Anselmo T. Cisneros, Jae Keun Choi, Alexandre Y. K. Chong, Massimiliano Fratoni, Sea Hong, Lakshana R. Huddar, Kathryn D. Huff, James Kendrick, David L. Krumwiede, Michael R. Laufer, Madicken Munk, Raluca O. Scarlat, Nicolas Zweibaum, Ehud Greenspan, Xin Wang, Per Peterson
Nuclear Technology | Volume 195 | Number 3 | September 2016 | Pages 223-238
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NT16-2
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The University of California, Berkeley (UCB), has developed a preconceptual design for a commercial pebble-bed (PB), fluoride salt–cooled, high-temperature reactor (FHR) (PB-FHR). The baseline design for this Mark-I PB-FHR (Mk1) plant is a 236-MW(thermal) reactor. The Mk1 uses a fluoride salt coolant with solid, coated-particle pebble fuel. The Mk1 design differs from earlier FHR designs because it uses a nuclear air-Brayton combined cycle designed to produce 100 MW(electric) of base-load electricity using a modified General Electric 7FB gas turbine. For peak electricity generation, the Mk1 has the ability to boost power output up to 242 MW(electric) using natural gas co-firing. The Mk1 uses direct heating of the power conversion fluid (air) with the primary coolant salt rather than using an intermediate coolant loop. By combining results from computational neutronics, thermal hydraulics, and pebble dynamics, UCB has developed a detailed design of the annular core and other key functional features. Both an active normal shutdown cooling system and a passive, natural-circulation-driven emergency decay heat removal system are included. Computational models of the FHR—validated using experimental data from the literature and from scaled thermal-hydraulic facilities—have led to a set of design criteria and system requirements for the Mk1 to operate safely and reliably. Three-dimensional, computer-aided-design models derived from the Mk1 design criteria are presented.