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
Nuclear Installations Safety
Devoted specifically to the safety of nuclear installations and the health and safety of the public, this division seeks a better understanding of the role of safety in the design, construction and operation of nuclear installation facilities. The division also promotes engineering and scientific technology advancement associated with the safety of such facilities.
Meeting Spotlight
2025 ANS Annual Conference
June 15–18, 2025
Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott Downtown
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
May 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
July 2025
Nuclear Technology
June 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
High-temperature plumbing and advanced reactors
The use of nuclear fission power and its role in impacting climate change is hotly debated. Fission advocates argue that short-term solutions would involve the rapid deployment of Gen III+ nuclear reactors, like Vogtle-3 and -4, while long-term climate change impact would rely on the creation and implementation of Gen IV reactors, “inherently safe” reactors that use passive laws of physics and chemistry rather than active controls such as valves and pumps to operate safely. While Gen IV reactors vary in many ways, one thing unites nearly all of them: the use of exotic, high-temperature coolants. These fluids, like molten salts and liquid metals, can enable reactor engineers to design much safer nuclear reactors—ultimately because the boiling point of each fluid is extremely high. Fluids that remain liquid over large temperature ranges can provide good heat transfer through many demanding conditions, all with minimal pressurization. Although the most apparent use for these fluids is advanced fission power, they have the potential to be applied to other power generation sources such as fusion, thermal storage, solar, or high-temperature process heat.1–3
Wondea Jung
Nuclear Technology | Volume 202 | Number 2 | May-June 2018 | Pages 210-219
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2017.1419784
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Although a feed and bleed (F&B) operation is an important emergency task having a significant effect on the risk of a pressurized water reactor–type nuclear power plant, there is a high uncertainty regarding its modeling and analysis in a probabilistic safety assessment (PSA). This paper introduces a study on the design of an operational strategy for an F&B operation based on human reliability analysis (HRA) with plant-specific thermal-hydraulic (TH) and human performance time (PT) analyses. The emergency operating procedures (EOPs) of a reference plant were modified by adding a new procedural path for the F&B operation to reduce its effect on the plant’s risk. To support the modification of the procedure, an intensive TH analysis was conducted to evaluate the plant’s behavior in diverse accident conditions and to revise the success criteria for the HRA of the F&B operation. In addition, an empirical analysis of PT required to carry out the F&B operation was conducted based on plant-specific simulator records. The PSA model of the reference plant was revised by reflecting the modified EOPs and new success criteria for the HRA of the F&B operation, which showed that core damage frequency of the revised PSA was about 50% lower than that of the original PSA.