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.
R. W. Moir, R. H. Bulmer, K. Gulec, P. Fogarty, B. Nelson, M. Ohnishi, M. Rensink, T. D. Rognlien, J. F. Santarius, D. K. Sze
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 39 | Number 2 | March 2001 | Pages 758-767
Chamber Technology | doi.org/10.13182/FST01-A11963330
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A thick flowing layer of liquid (e.g., flibe–a molten salt, Sn80Li20 or Li –liquid metals) protects the structural walls of the field-reversed configuration (FRC) so that they can last the life of the plant even with intense 14 MeV neutron bombardment from the D-T fusion reaction. The surface temperature of the liquid rises as it passes from the inlet nozzles to the exit nozzles due to absorption of line and bremsstrahlung radiation, and neutrons. The surface temperature can be reduced by enhancement of convection near the surface to transport hot surface liquid into the cooler interior. The resulting temperature for evaporation estimates called, Teff, is 660, 714 and 460°C for flibe, SnLi and Li, where thermal conductivity was assumed enhanced by a factor of ten for flibe. The corresponding evaporative flux from the wall must result in an acceptable impurity level in the core plasma. The shielding of the core by the edge plasma is modeled with a 2D transport code for the resulting impurity ions; these ions are either swept out to the distant end tanks, or diffuse to the hot plasma core. The calculations show core impurity levels adequately low for Li and Sn80Li20 but is about ten times too large for flibe. An auxiliary plasma between the edge plasma and the liquid wall can further attenuate evaporating flux of atoms and molecules by ionization. The current in this auxiliary plasma might serve as the antenna for the current drive method, which produces a rotating magnetic field.