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.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
Feb 2026
Jul 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
March 2026
Nuclear Technology
February 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
January 2026
Latest News
Quality is key: Investing in advanced nuclear research for tomorrow’s grid
As the energy sector faces mounting pressure to grow at an unprecedented pace while maintaining reliability and affordability, nuclear technology remains an essential component of the long-term solution. Southern Company stands out among U.S. utilities for its proactive role in shaping these next-generation systems—not just as a future customer, but as a hands-on innovator.
Thomas Moore, Mike Steer, Marco Delchini, Mathieu Martin, Brian Woods
Nuclear Technology | Volume 206 | Number 6 | June 2020 | Pages 862-894
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2019.1667186
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In support of the restart of the Transient Reactor Test (TREAT) Facility at the Idaho National Laboratory, an analysis of a historic sodium loop experiment is performed. With the aging of the data and the beginning of a new campaign of transient testing, it is an ideal time to perform a modern analysis of a previously successful transient testing campaign. This work investigates many prior tests and ranks these tests for desirability of analysis using modern computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools. Once the testing data were collected, necessary drawings were used to build a three-dimensional model of the test loop for CFD analysis. This geometry was then used to perform a multi-resolution analysis of the test loop. Three different resolution analyses were performed: a macroscale analysis detailing average flow characteristics in the test section using STAR-CCM+, a more refined analysis that investigated the thermal profile within the test section in more detail using STAR-CCM+, and a fine-mesh analysis that aims to lend credibility to the turbulence modeling performed in the lower-resolution analyses using Nek5000. The main goal was to show the feasibility of using modern computational tools for experiments performed at TREAT. With this analysis performed, a methodology has been outlined for future work to follow when analyzing the data from future TREAT tests. The more refined STAR-CCM+ analysis showed the best results when compared with data, showing that simulating the solid structures is an important feature of the analysis.