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Division Spotlight
Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
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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February 2024
Latest News
From South Korea to Belgium: Testing a high-density research reactor fuel
The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute has developed a high-density uranium silicide fuel designed to replace high-enriched uranium in research reactors. Recent irradiation tests appear to be successful, KAERI reports, which means the fuel could be commercialized to continue a key global nuclear nonproliferation effort—converting research reactors to run on low-enriched uranium fuel.
Q. T. Pham, N. Tauveron (Grenoble Alps Univ), N. Alpy (CEA)
Proceedings | 2018 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2018) | Charlotte, NC, April 8-11, 2018 | Pages 441-450
Co-existence of nuclear-renewable energies in a single hybrid power plant has been considered as an efficient and economical option to significantly reduce environmental impacts due to combination of two clean and climate-friendly decarbonized energy sources. The concept refers to an innovative system to balance the fluctuating renewable energy source such as wind, hydro and solar with the constant, base load nuclear output in order to smooth the energy production and to respond to the increasingly varying electricity demand. In the literature, few works have been reported on hybridization of a solar power plant with a small modular nuclear reactor (SMR) employing the proven pressurized water reactor technology wherein steam Rankine cycle is used for power conversion system at relatively low pressure. The current work suggests an integration of a SMR and a concentrated solar power plant (CSP) equipped with a thermal energy storage (TES) in which supercritical CO?Brayton cycle is adopted for power generation. The nuclear energy loop transfers heat to the electrical generation loop and the solar heat serves for raising the incoming gas temperature at the turbine inlet. The implementation of the thermal energy storage system enables continuous gas heating and non-stop plant operation. The proposed hybrid configuration is aimed at benefiting the technological advancements in exchangers and gas turbines to reach the plant thermal efficiency as high as feasible. The plant’s performance at design point is simulated by Engineering Equation Solver software. The simulation data present the potential enhancements of the suggested nuclear-solar hybrid plant’s thermodynamic efficiency in comparison to a single nuclear plant. In addition, advantages of utilization of SCO? Brayton cycle instead of classical steam Rankine cycle in such innovative hybrid system is also investigated. It is highlighted that hybrid operation could provide a substantial gain for cycle efficiency, up to 9-10 points, compared to single nuclear one’s, with possibly slightly improved performance for SCO? compare to Steam.