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
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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Latest News
Former NRC commissioners lend support to efforts to eliminate mandatory hearings
A group of nine former nuclear regulatory commissioners sent a letter Wednesday to the current Nuclear Regulatory Commission members lending support to efforts to get rid of mandatory hearings in the licensing process, which should speed up the process by three to six months and save millions of dollars.
Wei Zhou, Michael J. Apted, John H. Kessler
Nuclear Technology | Volume 170 | Number 2 | May 2010 | Pages 336-352
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management and Disposal | doi.org/10.13182/NT10-A9487
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper describes the recent work to evaluate the technical storage capacity for spent fuel in the Yucca Mountain repository. To increase the capacity from the current statutory limit of 63000 tonnes HM commercial spent nuclear fuel (CSNF), two alternative repository designs are proposed and analyzed, which add two additional emplacement drifts adjacent to each current-design drift. All designs assume the same waste package inventory, or heat generation rate, and drift ventilation as the current design. As both alternative designs would fit the well-characterized repository footprint, no additional site characterization at Yucca Mountain would be necessary. The work also examines extended ventilation and phased waste-loading assumptions in anticipation of an expanded role for nuclear power in electricity generation. The key parameter to the storage capacity in the Yucca Mountain site is water movement. To study the thermal and hydrological responses to increased storage capacity, series of two-dimensional models were used to simulate coupled heat and mass (water and air) transfer within the repository system and the near-field subsurface environment, including all geological formations above and below the repository horizon from the surface to the water table. A three-dimensional model was applied to investigate the effect of axial heat transfer and fluid flow. The results show that the current repository footprint can accommodate three times the currently legislated 63000 tonnes HM of CSNF without compromising repository performance.