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Division Spotlight
Accelerator Applications
The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
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
Can hydrogen be the transportation fuel in an otherwise nuclear economy?
Let’s face it: The global economy should be powered primarily by nuclear power. And it probably will by the end of this century, with a still-significant assist from renewables and hydro. Once nuclear systems are dominant, the costs come down to where gas is now; and when carbon emissions are reduced to a small portion of their present state, it will become obvious that most other sources are only good in niche settings. I mean, why use small modular reactors to load-follow when they can just produce that power instead of buffering it?
Raciel de la Torre Valdés, Juan Luis François (Univ of Mexico), Pedro Morales, Lázaro García (Higher Inst of Technology and Applied Sciences)
Proceedings | Advances in Thermal Hydraulics 2018 | Orlando, FL, November 11-15, 2018 | Pages 1066-1079
Intermediate heat exchangers are one of the most critical devices in the safety of facilities with very high temperature nuclear reactors. In this application, the printed circuit heat exchanger (PCHE) design has shown the greatest advantages in terms of heat transfer, compactness and structural strength. In this work, a thermal-hydraulic model of the zigzag channels PCHE was developed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques. The Nusselt number and the Fanning friction factor obtained from the CFD model was validated by comparison with correlations published by other authors and found by experimental data. Four geometric parameters of zigzag channels such as: zigzag length, zigzag angle, zigzag radius and zigzag phase-shift were chosen to optimize the PCHE design. With this in view, the model was set up with three channels for each cold and hot fluid, achieving a good accuracy. To consider the interaction among parameters with a reduced computing time, the Taguchi method was used to reduce the quantity of analyzed geometric designs. The zigzag angle was found like the most important geometric parameter in the thermal-hydraulic performance of the PCHE. The maximum value of the Nusselt number had the maximum value of zigzag angle and the minimum friction factor had the minimum value of zigzag angle. This is caused by the increment of the real length of the channels and the appearance of reverse flow zones for higher angles.