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.
Muhammad Altahhan, Sandesh Bhaskar, Paolo Balestra, Jason Hou, Maria Avramova (NCSU), Nicholas Smith (Southern Co.)
Proceedings | Advances in Thermal Hydraulics 2018 | Orlando, FL, November 11-15, 2018 | Pages 1248-1256
In this study, a hybrid two-dimensional (2D) / three-dimensional (3D) Liquid Fuel Molten Salt Reactor (LFMSR) core is modelled using the Multi-physics C++ code GeN-Foam (General Nuclear Foam). GeNFoam has three main sub-solvers - for neutron kinetics, thermal hydraulics, and thermal mechanics. A steady state analysis of a simplified 2D LFMSR model has been performed assuming rotational symmetry to cross validate the code with the commercial ANSYS Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code Fluent. The calculations showed a very good agreement between the two codes allowing moving onto a 3D model simulation. A coupled 3D neutron kinetic and CFD steady state analysis of the 3D LFMSR core has been performed modeling one quarter of the core using the core symmetry to reduce the computational time. The GeN-Foam neutron kinetics sub-solver has been designed to consider also the drifting of the delayed neutrons precursors in LFMSR, a capability not yet implemented in the most of current neutron kinetics codes. The mixed Uranium and Plutonium chloride fuel has been selected in this preliminary study. The calculation results meet the expectations showing that GeN-Foam has all the features necessary for LFMSR design modeling and simulation. The delayed neutrons precursors behavior is as expected - the longer-lived isotopes accumulate near the outlet while the short-lived ones lay at the generation location. The calculated maximum temperature is close to the expected one and the velocity profile is consistent with a low viscosity, high density fluid velocity profile.