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Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
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2025 ANS Annual Conference
June 15–18, 2025
Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott Downtown
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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
NuScale Energy Exploration Center opens at George Mason University
NuScale Power Corporation has opened another Energy Exploration (E2) Center—this one at George Mason University in Arlington, Va. Just last month, a NuScale E2 Center opened at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, S.C. The newest E2 at George Mason is the company’s 11th center.
Philippe M. Bardet, Per F. Peterson
Nuclear Technology | Volume 163 | Number 3 | September 2008 | Pages 344-357
Technical Paper | Molten Salt Chemistry and Technology | doi.org/10.13182/NT163-344
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Liquid fluoride salts and helium have desirable properties for use as working fluids for high-temperature (500 to 1000°C) heat transport in fission and fusion applications. This paper presents recent progress in the design and analysis of scaled thermal-hydraulic experiments for fluid mechanics and convective heat transfer in liquid salt and helium systems. It presents a category of heat transfer fluids and a category of light mineral oils that can be used for scaled experiments simulating convective heat transfer in liquid salts. By optimally selecting the length, velocity, average temperature, and temperature difference scales of the experiment, it is possible to simultaneously match the Reynolds, Froude, Prandtl, and Grashof numbers in geometrically scaled experiments operating at low-temperature, reduced length, and velocity scales. Mechanical pumping power and heat input are reduced to ~1 to 2% of the prototype power inputs. Helium fluid mechanics and heat transfer likewise can be simulated by nitrogen following the same procedure. The resulting length, velocity, temperature, and power scales for simulating helium are quite similar to those for the liquid salts, and the pressure scale is reduced greatly compared to the prototypical pressure scale. Steady state and transient heat transfer to a steel and graphite structure can be reproduced with moderate distortion using Pyrex and high-thermal-conductivity epoxies, respectively. Thermal radiation heat transfer cannot be reproduced, so the use of these simulant fluids is limited to those cases where radiation heat transport is small compared to convective heat transport, or where corrections for thermal radiation heat transfer can be introduced in models using convective heat transfer data from the simulant fluids. Likewise for helium flows, compressibility effects are not reproduced.