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
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
Meeting Spotlight
2022 ANS Annual Meeting
June 12–16, 2022
Anaheim, CA|Anaheim Hilton
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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May 2022
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Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2022
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Fund to spur new nuclear projects launched in U.K.
The U.K. government is providing £120 million (about $149.9 million) for a new fund designed to support the development of new nuclear energy projects, stimulate competition in the industry, and unlock investment.
Paolo F. Venneri, Michael Eades, Yonghee Kim
Nuclear Technology | Volume 197 | Number 1 | January 2017 | Pages 64-74
Technical Paper | dx.doi.org/10.13182/NT16-80
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper explores the possibility of passively controlling the reactivity of a nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) reactor. The objective of this study is to limit the use of the radial control drums to start-up and shutdown procedures and ensure that the exact same operation is performed for each full-power burn. To achieve the goal, this work considers several design measures, which include a low-density burnable absorber in the tie-tube components of the core, the use of variable hydrogen density in the moderator element coolant passages, and the judicious selection of a modified mission profile to maximize the decay of 135Xe after operation. In addition, the improved stability from the enhanced fuel temperature feedback due to the implementation of low-enriched-uranium fuel is also exploited for the realization of passive reactivity control. In this work, a passive reactivity control system is implemented in the Superb Use of Low Enriched Uranium (SULEU) NTP core and analyzed in terms of its ability to fulfill a NASA Mars Mission Design Reference Architecture 5.0–style mission. It is concluded that the use of the control drums can be limited to start-up and shutdown operations only, eliminating operator input in order to maintain a constant power level in the core.
