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
Robotics & Remote Systems
The Mission of the Robotics and Remote Systems Division is to promote the development and application of immersive simulation, robotics, and remote systems for hazardous environments for the purpose of reducing hazardous exposure to individuals, reducing environmental hazards and reducing the cost of performing work.
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
May 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Proving DRACO will deliver
The United States is now closer than it has been in over five decades to launching the first nuclear thermal rocket into space, thanks to DRACO—the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Orbit.
Insoo Jim, Mohamed Abdou
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 21 | Number 3 | May 1992 | Pages 2159-2168
Blanket Shield and Neutronic | doi.org/10.13182/FST92-A30040
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Activation analysis for the cavity of the PROMETHEUS ICF design, which uses a wetted first wall protection scheme, has been performed. It has been found that the PROMETHEUS cavity produces about 0.9 Ci/W of thermal power at shutdown after the full 30 years operation, which is about the same amount of radioactivity of other ICF and MCF fusion designs with low activation materials. It was possible, however, to reduce the radioactivity inventory level in the shield by one to three orders of magnitude by introducing a new shield design that uses B4C, Pb, SiC and water instead of using the conventional concrete shield. Furthermore, the effect of using the spherical and cylindrical modeling on the prediction of radioactivity in the first wall has been studied. It has been found that the cylindrical model with a point neutron source at the center of the cylinder reduces the radioactivity of the short half-life products to about 80% of the values that would be obtained by using purely spherical modeling. Finally, the 210Po problem associated with the use of lead has been analyzed. It is shown that 210Po produced from neutron interactions with lead is more important than that produced from the bismuth impurity (40ppm) existing in lead if the machine is operated over ∼1 year.