ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
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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
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
Congress receives NRC report on unusual events
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has published its annual report to Congress for fiscal year 2023 on abnormal occurrences involving medical and industrial uses of radioactive material.
The report, which was announced by the NRC on May 3, is available on the NRC website.
Fausto Franceschini, Bojan Petrovic
Nuclear Technology | Volume 167 | Number 3 | September 2009 | Pages 362-370
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A9076
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
IRIS is a 335-MW(electric) pressurized water reactor (PWR) with integral primary system. Its design and optimized maintenance are compatible with long cycles, up to 4 yr. Advanced fuel management techniques are employed to support this objective; among others, novel use of burnable absorbers is considered. Erbium is one absorber that is currently utilized in PWRs. It has many desirable properties that ideally suit the extended cycle and low soluble boron concentration targeted by IRIS. However, erbium also leads to a cycle length penalty due to incomplete depletion and residual absorber isotopes, plus uranium displacement following erbium incorporation in the fuel matrix. This paper proposes to consider modifying the isotopic composition of erbium, evaluates its impact, and demonstrates that it is possible to obtain a considerable reduction of the penalty while retaining the positive features of natural erbium fuel. The economic benefit of the reduced penalty is appealing for the industrial production of isotopically modified erbium fuel.