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 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
Latest Magazine Issues
Jun 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
July 2026
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Two steps forward for U.K. advanced nuclear
This week, two significant announcements have emerged from the United Kingdom’s advanced reactor sector.
On June 14, Rolls-Royce, the United Kingdom National Nuclear Laboratory, and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency announced that they had signed two trilateral memorandums of cooperation to collaborate on “advanced modular reactor (AMR) technology, specifically high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGR), and the coated particle fuel these reactors will use.”
Separately, on June 16, Bellevue, Wash.–based TerraPower announced that its Natrium reactor design has been formally submitted for U.K. regulatory review. The company also announced the formation of a new subsidiary, TerraPower UK Ltd.
Yoshiro Nishioka, Satoru Kuboya, Yuya Takahashi, Hideki Horie, Mika Tahara (Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions Corp), Tadashi Fujii (Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy, Ltd), Takafumi Tsuji (Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc.)
Proceedings | 2018 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2018) | Charlotte, NC, April 8-11, 2018 | Pages 223-228
The passive debris cooling system provides a means to stably hold and cool the molten core (debris) dropped from the reactor vessel by the heat resistant material laid on the bottom of the containment vessel. As a heat resistant material, high melting point and highly corrosion-resistant oxide is laid on the pedestal and water is injected afterwards to suppress MCCI by the molten core. In the past research, although knowledge about molten core and concrete has been acquired, knowledge about interaction between molten core and heat resistant material is insufficient. Therefore, element tests on heat resistant materials were conducted, various heat resistant materials were screened, and molten core - heat resistant material interaction model was constructed using the obtained findings. Using the constructed model, we evaluated the erosion / heat transfer behavior of the heat resistant material assuming the bottom of the BWR / Mark - II type containment vessel at the time of severe accident and confirmed the MCCI suppression effect by the passive debris cooling system.