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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.
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Fusion Science and Technology
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Glass strategy: Hanford’s enhanced waste glass program
The mission of the Department of Energy’s Office of River Protection (ORP) is to complete the safe cleanup of waste resulting from decades of nuclear weapons development. One of the most technologically challenging responsibilities is the safe disposition of approximately 56 million gallons of radioactive waste historically stored in 177 tanks at the Hanford Site in Washington state.
ORP has a clear incentive to reduce the overall mission duration and cost. One pathway is to develop and deploy innovative technical solutions that can advance baseline flow sheets toward higher efficiency operations while reducing identified risks without compromising safety. Vitrification is the baseline process that will convert both high-level and low-level radioactive waste at Hanford into a stable glass waste form for long-term storage and disposal.
Although vitrification is a mature technology, there are key areas where technology can further reduce operational risks, advance baseline processes to maximize waste throughput, and provide the underpinning to enhance operational flexibility; all steps in reducing mission duration and cost.
Sara Bortot, Carlo Artioli, Marco E. Ricotti
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 61 | Number 1 | January 2012 | Pages 329-337
Modeling and Simulations | Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems | doi.org/10.13182/FST12-A13441
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A preliminary feasibility study and scope analysis for a demonstrator (demo) of the SUstainable Proliferation-resistance Enhanced Refined Secure Transportable Autonomous Reactor (SUPERSTAR) has been performed. Preliminary core design studies have been carried out focused on maximizing the power level compatibly with natural circulation cooling and transportability requirements, while meeting the foremost goals of (i) providing energy security and proliferation resistance thanks to a long life core design, (ii) minimizing the reactivity swing over the fuel lifetime, and (iii) flattening the radial power profiles, as demanded by the choice of wrapper-less fuel assemblies and by the stringent technological constraints imposed by the short-time-to-deployment feature. Once established appropriate geometrical pin and fuel assembly specifications, a suitable active height allowing the system to be cooled by free-flowing lead has finally been set through parametric T/H analyses. Fuel cycle calculations have been then performed to optimize both the fresh fuel composition and the radial enrichment zoning. Moreover, the use of several absorbing materials has been investigated in order to guarantee enhanced safety by incorporating control elements having a net density greater than that of the surrounding lead coolant. A complete static neutronic characterization of the resulting core has been finally accomplished.