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
Nuclear Installations Safety
Devoted specifically to the safety of nuclear installations and the health and safety of the public, this division seeks a better understanding of the role of safety in the design, construction and operation of nuclear installation facilities. The division also promotes engineering and scientific technology advancement associated with the safety of such facilities.
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
Satish Kumar Dhurandhar, S. L. Sinha, Shashi Kant Verma
Nuclear Technology | Volume 206 | Number 5 | May 2020 | Pages 663-696
Critical Review | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2019.1698257
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Flow and thermal performance analysis is an important area in the nuclear industry for the safe operation of reactors and the optimum design of fuel rod bundles with spacers in the reactor core. The spacer, an essential element in the nuclear fuel rod assembly, is used to support the fuel rods in the bundle and maintain suitable clearance between the rods. This paper represents a comprehensive review of the effects of spacer/mixing vane spacer on flow behavior and heat transfer performance in nuclear fuel rod bundles, annular channels, and circular tubes. This paper is based on the experimental and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) investigations performed by researchers in literature for both single-phase and two-phase fluid flow. In addition, the effects of some parameters, such as Reynolds number, hydraulic diameter, pitch-to-diameter ratio, blockage ratio, working fluid, and number of fuel rods in an assembly, on flow and thermal performance analysis have been reviewed. A detailed review has been carried out by considering both experimental and CFD methods used in the past for analysis of thermal-hydraulic performance in the fuel channels of nuclear reactors.
