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
Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
Meeting Spotlight
Conference on Nuclear Training and Education: A Biennial International Forum (CONTE 2023)
February 6–9, 2023
Amelia Island, FL|Omni Amelia Island Resort
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
Feb 2023
Jul 2022
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
February 2023
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
University of Florida-led consortium to research nuclear forensics
A 16-university team of 31 scientists and engineers, under the title Consortium for Nuclear Forensics and led by the University of Florida, has been selected by the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to develop the next generation of new technologies and insights in nuclear forensics.
K. Lisa Reed, Farzad Rahnema
Nuclear Technology | Volume 208 | Number 3 | March 2022 | Pages 562-574
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2021.1935166
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Previous work presented a set of stylized three-dimensional benchmark problems based on the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) preconceptual design of a fluoride-salt-cooled small modular advanced high-temperature reactor, or SmAHTR, with prismatic assemblies fueled by tri-isotropic (TRISO) particles. That previous work created a detailed description of the benchmark problems by closing several outstanding design gaps from the ORNL preconceptual design report, notably by addressing the lack of active control mechanisms, for which control rod “bundles” were implemented.
In this technical note, the creation of two additional stylized benchmark problem sets based on that past work is detailed, offering two new control rod configurations. The fluoride salt, small size, and highly heterogeneous TRISO-fueled pins make these additional benchmark problem sets useful numerical validation references in benchmarking neutronics tools against continuous-energy stochastic Monte Carlo results. Detailed reference results, including the eigenvalue (keff) and 1/11th assembly-averaged relative fission density distributions, are provided for both control rod configurations in full-core cases with all control rods withdrawn and all control rods fully inserted. A near-critical core benchmark problem and results are provided for one configuration. The provided results are calculated using the continuous-energy Monte Carlo code MCNP.