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Division Spotlight
Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
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!
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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
Li-Chi Cliff Po
Nuclear Technology | Volume 206 | Number 3 | March 2020 | Pages 505-513
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2019.1641877
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Eight years after the Fukushima accident, the last missing pieces of the jigsaw puzzle for light water reactor (LWR) safety have been put together. In the United States, the nuclear power industry has implemented diverse and flexible strategies to prevent and mitigate severe accidents. In this technical note, the author presents a conceptual design of an online accident prevention system (APS). The proposed concept takes advantage of the fact that the progression of a severe accident caused by an unplanned evolution of the fission dynamics in LWRs, which may be due to mechanical failures, human errors, or external events, progresses significantly slower than events in many other industries, such as chemical explosions or transportation accidents. The APS will make rapid diagnostics of any ongoing event by artificial intelligence and subsequently make immediate predictions using a high-speed simulation code. Should the severe accident lead to core degradation or off-site release, the operators will use all available means including diverse and flexible coping strategies (known as FLEX) to prevent it from happening. Full development and implementation of this APS will greatly enhance nuclear safety in the fight against global warming.