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
Aerospace Nuclear Science & Technology
Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
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
Jun Fang, Joseph J. Cambareri, Mengnan Li, Nadish Saini, Igor A. Bolotnov
Nuclear Technology | Volume 206 | Number 2 | February 2020 | Pages 133-149
Critical Review | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2019.1620056
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This critical review paper outlines the recent progress in high-resolution numerical simulations of two-phase coolant flow in light water reactor–relevant geometries by resolving the water-vapor interface. Rapid development of capabilities in high-performance computing is creating exciting opportunities to study complex reactor thermal-hydraulic phenomena. Today’s advances in thermal-hydraulic analysis and interface-resolved simulations will help pave the way to the next level of understanding of two-phase flow behavior in complex geometries. This paper consists of two major parts: (1) a brief review of direct numerical simulation and interface tracking simulation and (2) several opportunities in the near future to apply cutting-edge simulation and analysis capabilities to address the nuclear-related multiphase flow challenges. The first part will discuss typical computational methods used for the simulations and provide some examples of the past work as well as computational cost estimates and affordability of such simulations for research and industrial applications. In the second part specific application examples are discussed, from adiabatic bubbly flow simulations in pressurized water reactor subchannel geometry to the modeling of nucleate boiling. The uniqueness of this study lies in the specific focus on applications with nuclear engineering interest as well as new generation modeling and analysis methodologies. Together with the ever-growing computing power, the related large-scale two-phase flow simulations will become indispensable for the improved scientific understanding of complex two-phase flow phenomena in nuclear reactors under normal operation and postulated accident conditions.
