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.
Division Spotlight
Decommissioning & Environmental Sciences
The mission of the Decommissioning and Environmental Sciences (DES) Division is to promote the development and use of those skills and technologies associated with the use of nuclear energy and the optimal management and stewardship of the environment, sustainable development, decommissioning, remediation, reutilization, and long-term surveillance and maintenance of nuclear-related installations, and sites. The target audience for this effort is the membership of the Division, the Society, and the public at large.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Apr 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
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.
Arthur W. Dalton
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 12 | Number 3 | November 1987 | Pages 409-415
Technical Paper | Tritium System | doi.org/10.13182/FST87-A25072
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A cylinder of natural lithium carbonate, supported on a slab of graphite, was irradiated from above by a low-intensity source of 14-MeV neutrons and the tritium produced within it subsequently determined from measurements of beta activity. Results obtained for small lithium carbonate detectors highly enriched in 6Li (96%) or 7Li (99.9%) at six positions along the cylinder axis were compared with predictions based on three-dimensional Monte Carlo calculations and multi-group cross-section data. The experimental accuracy was sufficient to detect deviations from theory > 7% with a 95% level of confidence. On this basis, good agreement with theoretical predictions was obtained for the 7Li results. For the 6Li data, however, significant differences were observed in the lower half of the assembly. A detailed analysis indicated that these deviations could not be explained in terms of conceivable environmental perturbations of the neutron flux and may arise as a consequence of inadequate representation of anisotropic neutron scattering.
