ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
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Division Spotlight
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.
Meeting Spotlight
Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
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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Nuclear Science and Engineering
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August 2024
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Taking shape: Fusion energy ecosystems built with public-private partnerships
It’s possible to describe fusion in simple terms: heat and squeeze small atoms to get abundant clean energy. But there’s nothing simple about getting fusion ready for the grid.
Private developers, national lab and university researchers, suppliers, and end users working toward that goal are developing a range of complex technologies to reach fusion temperatures and pressures, confounded by science and technology gaps linked to plasma behavior; materials, diagnostics, and electronics for extreme environments; fuel cycle sustainability; and economics.
L. Sudderth, D. Perez-Nunez, D. Keiser, S. McDeavitt
Nuclear Technology | Volume 202 | Number 1 | April 2018 | Pages 81-93
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2017.1420336
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A fluidized bed chemical vapor deposition (FB-CVD) system with an inverted reactor was used to develop barrier coatings of zirconium nitride on the surface of U 8 wt% Mo microspheres in order to examine the resulting coating structure and composition, as well as to evaluate the effects of certain process parameters on the coating properties. The process utilized the metal-organic precursor tetrakis(dimethylamino)zirconium heated to 51°C ± 2°C. Time-dependent studies analyzed the coating produced after 2 to 8 days of operation at 100 mL/min precursor carrier flow rate and 500 mL/min fluidization flow rate. Flow-rate–dependent studies produced coated samples using a total flow rate of 600 mL/min, with the precursor carrier flow rate ranging from 100 to 300 mL/min and the fluidization flow rate adjusted accordingly. Ultrahigh-purity argon was used for the precursor carrier and fluidization gas. The CVD reaction was carried out at 280°C ± 10°C with precursor transport tubes heated to 60°C to 75°C. The zirconium-based coatings were manufactured up to 2.2 ± 0.3 µm thick after 2 days of deposition. The estimated coating thickness was not significantly impacted by extending the duration of the deposition process or increasing the precursor carrier gas flow rate. Imaging of the microsphere cross sections provided evidence of uranium oxide, zirconium oxide, and zirconium nitride layers formed within the coating, with nitrogen content becoming more dominant farther from the bulk U-Mo surface. Certain modifications to the process would improve the results, including installing the system inside an inert atmosphere to limit oxygen contamination and higher resolution analyses to better determine coating structure, and finally, performance of a kinetic study of the coating process, particularly over the first 24 h in which the majority of the deposition was suspected to have occurred by enabling partial powder removal during FB-CVD operation to analyze samples from different points within a single experiment.