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
Thermal Hydraulics
The division provides a forum for focused technical dialogue on thermal hydraulic technology in the nuclear industry. Specifically, this will include heat transfer and fluid mechanics involved in the utilization of nuclear energy. It is intended to attract the highest quality of theoretical and experimental work to ANS, including research on basic phenomena and application to nuclear system design.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Winter Conference and Expo
November 17–21, 2024
Orlando, FL|Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld
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
Sep 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
October 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Opinion: The overruling of the Chevron doctrine—A call for proactive engagement by technical organizations
The recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Chevron doctrine marks a significant shift in the landscape of federal decision-making. For more than 40 years, this doctrine has provided a framework wherein courts deferred to federal agencies’ interpretations of ambiguous laws in recognition of the specialized expertise these agencies bring to policy and regulatory development.
Brian Mays, Lewis Lommers, Stacy Yoder, Farshid Shahrokhi
Nuclear Technology | Volume 208 | Number 8 | August 2022 | Pages 1311-1323
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2021.1947664
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The inherent passive heat removal characteristics of modular High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactors (HTGRs) are well known. Modular HTGRs use a combination of coated-particle fuel, ceramic core materials, core geometry, and power level to maintain acceptable fuel temperatures for all credible operating and accident conditions. Heat from the reactor vessel is radiated to a passive reactor cavity cooling system (RCCS), which removes excess heat from the reactor cavity. The RCCS for Framatome’s Steam Cycle–High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor (SC-HTGR) is a highly reliable, redundant system. Similar to most other modular HTGR concepts, RCCS failure is not considered credible for any accident scenario. Nonetheless, reactor module performance with a compromised RCCS is still of interest. Evaluation of such beyond-design-basis scenarios supports safety assessment of extremely low probability beyond-design-basis events (BDBEs) as well as the development of RCCS design requirements and plant emergency procedures. This study evaluates the performance of the SC-HTGR during a long-term depressurized loss of forced circulation event without RCCS operation. Boundary conditions are varied to determine their effect on reactor temperatures. Safety and investment risk considerations are addressed. The results of this study indicate that the safety impact is modest since fuel temperatures remain within their limits. However, the investment risk is more significant since vessel temperatures could significantly exceed design limits for these hypothetical BDBEs.