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Division Spotlight
Isotopes & Radiation
Members are devoted to applying nuclear science and engineering technologies involving isotopes, radiation applications, and associated equipment in scientific research, development, and industrial processes. Their interests lie primarily in education, industrial uses, biology, medicine, and health physics. Division committees include Analytical Applications of Isotopes and Radiation, Biology and Medicine, Radiation Applications, Radiation Sources and Detection, and Thermal Power Sources.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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
Commercial nuclear innovation "new space" age
In early 2006, a start-up company launched a small rocket from a tiny island in the Pacific. It exploded, showering the island with debris. A year later, a second launch attempt sent a rocket to space but failed to make orbit, burning up in the atmosphere. Another year brought a third attempt—and a third failure. The following month, in September 2008, the company used the last of its funds to launch a fourth rocket. It reached orbit, making history as the first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to do so.
M. Nedim Cinbiz, Chase N. Taylor, Erik Luther, Holly Trellue, John Jackson
Nuclear Technology | Volume 209 | Number 1 | January 2023 | Pages S136-S145
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2022.2121583
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The emergence of microreactor technology has helped to drive supporting nuclear materials qualification and acceptance processes. One essential component in these small reactors is a solid moderator, which typically consists of metal hydride and cladding. While the behavior and performance of metal-hydride moderators go back to early advanced reactor development for nuclear-powered aviation and space propulsion, there remains a knowledge gap in the understanding of hydrogen transport–related phenomena and irradiation performance for hydride moderators. This impacts the acceptance/qualification of hydride moderators for microreactors.
The goal of this technical note is to lay out a potential path forward for advanced moderator qualification and acceptance for designers and developers of microreactors. The proposed approach has benefited from a model microreactor core with the design parameters of a hydride moderator. Based on the model core and design parameters, a simple chart was developed for the major challenges of hydride moderators where potential incidents, causes, effects, and resolutions are described. The relation between the offered resolutions and the maturity of the metal-hydride moderator technology was emphasized using technological readiness. Technological readiness levels (TRLs) were clustered to three sets: physical phenomena related, reactor irradiations, and system demonstration. Some essential needs to fill the knowledge gaps are discussed for physical phenomena–related TRLs. For reactor irradiations, the importance of identifying goals and priorities is stressed to reach certain TRLs. For system demonstration, it is noted that metal-hydride moderator qualification must comply with the overall microreactor design.