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
Jul 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
August 2026
Nuclear Technology
July 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
The deadline arrives: Checking in on the Reactor Pilot Program
On May 23, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14301, “Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing at the DOE,” which instructed the Department of Energy to create a Reactor Pilot Program (RPP)—a new system in which companies could pursue DOE authorization to build and test their first-of-a-kind nuclear technologies. EO 14301 set an ambitious goal for that program: three reactors achieving criticality by July 4, 2026.
Robby Christian, Hyun Gook Kang (RPI)
Proceedings | Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technolgies (NPIC&HMIT 2019) | Orlando, FL, February 9-14, 2019 | Pages 1-9
Operating criteria for Emergency Core Cooling System (ECCS) has been prescribed to maintain integrity of Zr-based fuel assemblies during a Loss of Coolant Accident (LOCA). With new Accident Tolerant Fuel (ATF) designs planned to replace current nuclear fuels, the ECCS criteria should be re-configured properly. This paper proposes a risk-informed approach to establishing the ECCS criteria for Silicon Carbide (SiC) cladding ATF. SiC failure modes were categorized into deterministic and stochastic. A methodology to calculate SiC stochastic tensile fracture probability was outlined. The cladding functional failure probability was formulated from the combination of fractures in each layer of SiC clad. ECCS performance, which includes mass flow rate and actuation timing of high and low pressure active injection, were varied to investigate clad failures. The SiC clad failure probability was found in the order of 1E-15 when it replaced Zr-clad while keeping ECCS criteria the same. A deterministic clad failure occurred when ECCS actuation exceeds 936 seconds after a large break LOCA, or when the ECCS mass flow rate was less than 4% of its designed capacity. When the likelihood of ECCS to perform beyond this criteria was less than 7E-4, the overall risk from deterministic and stochastic failures was less than ECCS risk in cooling Zr-clad of 1E-3. Results suggested that ECCS criteria for SiC may be relaxed compared to the criteria for Zr-clad. This relaxation may provide reductions in operational and maintenance costs.