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Division Spotlight
Robotics & Remote Systems
The Mission of the Robotics and Remote Systems Division is to promote the development and application of immersive simulation, robotics, and remote systems for hazardous environments for the purpose of reducing hazardous exposure to individuals, reducing environmental hazards and reducing the cost of performing work.
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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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
Kazuya Ohgama, Taira Hazama, Hiroki Katagiri, Atsushi Takegoshi
Nuclear Technology | Volume 209 | Number 8 | August 2023 | Pages 1197-1214
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2023.2197660
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
For evaluating control rod (CR) interaction, CR worth values with and without the insertion of interaction CRs were measured in six CR interaction patterns by the continuous period method and the compensation method in the prototype fast breeder reactor Monju. The measured CR worth was evaluated in detail by conducting corrections, such as the thermal contraction of CR drive shafts, and compared with calculations to examine the reliability. The calculation-to-experiment values (C/Es) of examined CR worths with and without the interaction were 0.96 to 0.98 ± 0.03. The values of the measured CR interactions were obtained from those examined CR worth measurements as a change in target CR worth by the insertion of interaction CRs: 5.0 ± 0.6% to 10.1 ± 0.1%. The C/Es of the interaction in those cases were 0.78 to 0.93 within 5% to 27% uncertainty. Through this study, the consistency and reliability of the measurements and the calculations of the CR interaction were confirmed, and the measurements were judged useful.
