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
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
May 2025
Jan 2025
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Nuclear Science and Engineering
July 2025
Nuclear Technology
June 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
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
J. Miller, S. Ercanbrack, C. L. Pope
Nuclear Technology | Volume 209 | Number 11 | November 2023 | Pages 1666-1679
PSA 2021 Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2022.2129273
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The foundation of the Versatile Economic Risk Tool is based on the methodologies of the Generation Risk Assessment (GRA) and uses a systematic approach to prioritizing systems, structures, and components based on estimated operation reliability and the impact on future power generation. The GRA provides management with insight that helps with decisions on maintenance, component repair/replacement, design modifications, and other issues associated with electricity generation and equipment reliability programs. Although the benefit of the GRA is understood in the nuclear community, there are negative aspects associated with the current approaches. Traditional GRA modeling is time consuming, convoluted, and considers only the static portion of generation risks. The Versatile Economic Risk Tool addresses the drawbacks of the traditional GRA through simplifying and/or automating the requirements for an effective GRA model. The Versatile Economic Risk Tool also integrates in-depth parametric variability within models to evaluate system, structure, and component generation risks as a function of time. The Versatile Economic Risk Tool addresses the shortcomings of the GRA by automating the study of equipment reliability and degradation from an electricity generation perspective by coupling fault tree analysis and statistical analysis software that support repetitive, parametric analyses. Versatile Economic Risk Tool case studies are presented to provide insight into the potential benefit provided.
