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The Young Members Group works to encourage and enable all young professional members to be actively involved in the efforts and endeavors of the Society at all levels (Professional Divisions, ANS Governance, Local Sections, etc.) as they transition from the role of a student to the role of a professional. It sponsors non-technical workshops and meetings that provide professional development and networking opportunities for young professionals, collaborates with other Divisions and Groups in developing technical and non-technical content for topical and national meetings, encourages its members to participate in the activities of the Groups and Divisions that are closely related to their professional interests as well as in their local sections, introduces young members to the rules and governance structure of the Society, and nominates young professionals for awards and leadership opportunities available to members.
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2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
The busyness of the nuclear fuel supply chain
Ken Petersenpresident@ans.org
With all that is happening in the industry these days, the nuclear fuel supply chain is still a hot topic. The Russian assault in Ukraine continues to upend the “where” and “how” of attaining nuclear fuel—and it has also motivated U.S. legislators to act.
Two years into the Russian war with Ukraine, things are different. The Inflation Reduction Act was passed in 2022, authorizing $700 million in funding to support production of high-assay low-enriched uranium in the United States. Meanwhile, the Department of Energy this January issued a $500 million request for proposals to stimulate new HALEU production. The Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2024 includes $2.7 billion in funding for new uranium enrichment production. This funding was diverted from the Civil Nuclear Credits program and will only be released if there is a ban on importing Russian uranium into the United States—which could happen by the time this column is published, as legislation that bans Russian uranium has passed the House as of this writing and is headed for the Senate. Also being considered is legislation that would sanction Russian uranium. Alternatively, the Biden-Harris administration may choose to ban Russian uranium without legislation in order to obtain access to the $2.7 billion in funding.
Alexander S. Khapov, Sergey K. Grishechkin, Vladimir G. Kiselev
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 67 | Number 2 | March 2015 | Pages 412-415
Proceedings of TRITIUM 2013 | doi.org/10.13182/FST14-T41
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Tritium permeation through structural materials is a key issue in many activities linked with tritium handling both for radiological safety and accountancy reasons to say nothing of economical aspect: tritium is not the cheapest material in the world. It is widely recognized that ceramic coatings provide an attractive solution to lower tritium permeation in structural materials. Alumina based ceramic coatings have the highest permeation reduction factor for hydrogen. Nevertheless even small cracking will significantly spoil the permeation reduction factor of a protecting coating. Nowadays for hydrogenating neutron tube targets with tritium “VNIIA” uses working chambers manufactured by pressing of alumina based ceramics. These chambers have revealed extremely low hydrogen permeation upon conditions of their application. For this reason an attempt was made to apply low porous ceramics as a structural material of a bed body for tritium storage in a setup used for hydrogenating neutron tube targets at “VNIIA”. The present article introduces the design of the bed. This bed possesses essentially less hydrogen permeation factor than traditionally used beds with stainless steel body. Bed heating in order to recover hydrogen from the bed is suggested to be implemented by high frequency induction means. Inductive heating allows decreasing the time necessary for tritium release from the bed as well as power consumption. Both of these factors mean less thermal power release into glove box where a setup for tritium handling is installed and thus causes fewer problems with pressure regulations inside the glove box. Inductive heating allows raising tritium sorbent material temperature up to melting point. The latter allows achieving nearly full tritium recovery.