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Decommissioning & Environmental Sciences
The mission of the Decommissioning and Environmental Sciences (DES) Division is to promote the development and use of those skills and technologies associated with the use of nuclear energy and the optimal management and stewardship of the environment, sustainable development, decommissioning, remediation, reutilization, and long-term surveillance and maintenance of nuclear-related installations, and sites. The target audience for this effort is the membership of the Division, the Society, and the public at large.
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2025 ANS Annual Conference
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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
Zhong Chen, Zi Jia Zhao, Zhongliang Lv, Yanyun Ma
Nuclear Technology | Volume 206 | Number 4 | April 2020 | Pages 637-650
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2019.1653151
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A water-flooded-core accident is a serious potential accident for high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs). In this technical note, based on two different water-flooded-core scenarios, preliminary neutronics analysis was performed on a typical HTGR. Preliminary temperature-effect analysis is carried out as well. It is found that the neutron-slowing ability is the key for the effective multiplication factor of the HTGR core. More importantly, when the water-flooded-core accident occurs, the HTGR might return back to supercritical with the core temperature decreasing even if it is safely shut down at high operation temperature.
