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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.
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2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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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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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Commercial nuclear innovation "new space" age
In early 2006, a start-up company launched a small rocket from a tiny island in the Pacific. It exploded, showering the island with debris. A year later, a second launch attempt sent a rocket to space but failed to make orbit, burning up in the atmosphere. Another year brought a third attempt—and a third failure. The following month, in September 2008, the company used the last of its funds to launch a fourth rocket. It reached orbit, making history as the first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to do so.
B. Sims, R. S. Bean, C. K. Choi
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 68 | Number 3 | October 2015 | Pages 711-714
Technical Note | Proceedings of TOFE-2014 | doi.org/10.13182/FST14-991
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A team at the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics has been working for several years to develop the Gas Dynamic Trap Mirror Neutron Source (GDT-NS) for fusion materials irradiation. In 2010 they optimized the design for a transmutation mission forecasting a 16 meter DT plasma with a fusion power of 15 MW and neutrons preferentially emitted into blankets placed around the mirror turning points. While this remains to be demonstrated experimentally, it is intriguing to explore what could be done with a low fusion power neutron source.
The GDT-NS team has previously modeled the burning of minor actinides. The work presented here builds on this by examining the burning of plutonium starting with transuranics recovered from spent nuclear fuel. It was found that a GDT plutonium burner with two blankets could eliminate nearly the plutonium produced in a single light water reactor core per full power year, 249 kg. By increasing the average blanket power with regular refueling, this quantity was increased to 381 kg per full power year. Next followed a preliminary overview of a GDT disposition blanket to meet US treaty commitments in burning surplus military plutonium.