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.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
May 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2026
Nuclear Technology
April 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
National labs drive nuclear innovations and uprates for the U.S. fleet
As the United States faces surging electricity demand driven by artificial intelligence, data centers, and a push to bring manufacturing back home, Idaho National Laboratory is leading an effort to modernize and expand the nation’s nuclear power capabilities by revamping the Department of Energy’s Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program.
Jason B. Meng, Francesco Deleo (TerraPower)
Proceedings | 2018 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2018) | Charlotte, NC, April 8-11, 2018 | Pages 51-59
The TerraPower-developed mechanical analysis code OXBOW is used to evaluate the mechanical performance of Traveling Wave Reactor core assemblies. Benchmarking work was performed using OXBOW to compare displacement and contact load results against a variety of mechanical analysis codes from the International Working Group on Fast Reactors (IWGFR) for a set of well-defined assembly conditions. Significant differences in results were found in the benchmark problem modeling a thermally bowing row of assemblies in a limited free bow core restraint configuration. This is due to a bridging effect which occurs due to differences in contact modeling methodology. Additionally, significant displacement differences in results were found in the benchmark problem modeling duct dilation under internal pressure, temperature, and irradiation. These differences are due to the fact that OXBOW dilation models account for both stress relaxation and geometric nonlinearities. Differences in results between OXBOW and the IWGFR benchmark participants are attributed to higher fidelity models generated using OXBOW.