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Division Spotlight
Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
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!
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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.
Alexey Soldatov, Todd S. Palmer
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 167 | Number 1 | January 2011 | Pages 77-90
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE09-39
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
To address the energy needs of developing countries and remote communities, Oregon State University has proposed the Multi-Application Small Light Water Reactor (MASLWR) design. This design uses 8% enriched fuel to achieve five years of operation without refueling. The specific operational conditions (lower pressure and temperature of fuel and coolant), increased enrichment of fuel, and extensive use of gadolinium burnable absorbers lead to significantly different neutron physics compared to conventional pressurized water reactors. In particular, spectrum hardening due to increased thermal neutron absorption, changes in kinetic parameters due to the isotopic content of the fresh and irradiated fuel, and fuel and control rod shadowing by burnable absorbers are consequences of the design requirements. Enhanced neutron leakage from the small MASLWR core also adds complexity. Neutron reflectors and a unique fuel-loading pattern compensate the pronounced axial and radial gradients of the neutron flux and power generation.This paper discusses the neutron physics and thermal-hydraulic issues of the core design for a small reactor with increased fuel enrichment and natural circulation of the coolant. The paper describes three evolutionary steps of the MASLWR core design process and discusses core parameters, advantages, disadvantages, and design limitations as they appeared during the core design feasibility study. The paper demonstrates the feasibility of the core design for five effective years of nonrefueled operation with 8.0% enriched UO2 fuel.