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Accelerator Applications
The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
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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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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
Axel Hoefer, Oliver Buss, Michael Schmid
Nuclear Technology | Volume 205 | Number 12 | December 2019 | Pages 1578-1587
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2018.1560784
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A general Bayesian framework for best-estimate plus uncertainty predictions of multidimensional continuous observables is presented. Parameterizing uncertainties in terms of multivariate normal distribution models, this Multivariate normal Bayesian model (MNBM) framework allows one to include both measured data and linear constraints in a mathematically consistent way. The resulting updating formulas are generalizations of the updating formulas of the Generalized Linear Least Squares (GLLS) framework, which is widely used for the generation of adjusted nuclear data libraries. While the GLLS methodology is restricted to first-order perturbation theory, there is no such restriction for the considered MNBM framework. This makes it possible to use Monte Carlo uncertainty propagation and to apply the updating formulas directly to the observables of interest without having to first update the input parameter distributions. After a general presentation of the MNBM framework and a brief discussion of its possible applications, the generation of bounding burnup-dependent axial burnup profiles of light water reactor fuel assemblies for the purpose of criticality safety analysis is discussed as an example application.