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Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
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June 15–18, 2025
Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott Downtown
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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
Yalan Qian, Tingting Zhang, Jingjing Li, Yuchen Song, Junlian Yin, Dezhong Wang, Hua Li, Wei Liu
Nuclear Technology | Volume 205 | Number 1 | January-February 2019 | Pages 272-280
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2018.1486161
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The gas-liquid separator is a key component in the gas removal system of the Thorium Molten Salt Reactor. Phase separation is driven by a swirling flow, and the fundamental principle is that dispersed bubbles are accumulated and coalesced into an air core to realize separation from the liquid phase. In this paper, simultaneous particle image velocimetry (PIV) and pulsed shadowgraphy techniques are applied to characterize the two-phase-flow patterns in the evolutionary process of the air core. The PIV technique utilizes fluorescent particles as tracers in the liquid flow field, and a charge coupled device (CCD) camera records the planar laser-induced fluorescence signal of the particles. Another camera simultaneously detects the shadow and motion of the air core via backlighting from an array of infrared light-emitting diodes. The signals originating from the different phases are separated by a beam splitter with a dichroic filter and optical filters, and only undisturbed signals from the shadow of the air core and fluorescence tracer particles of the fluid are effectively captured by the two CCD cameras, respectively. Experimental data are carried out for three Reynolds numbers Re for a range of outlet pressures Pout. The morphology of the air core tail periodically transforms from a linear type to a single-helix type to a double-helix type before reaching a stable state at the critical outlet pressures Pcout. The analysis of gas-liquid flow patterns indeed indicates that axial velocity has a strong influence on the air core evolution. The periodic fluctuation results from the magnitude and direction of axial velocity.