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Division Spotlight
Accelerator Applications
The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
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
Argonne to investigate Pu chemistry to aid Hanford cleanup
Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory are investigating the details of plutonium chemistry with the goal of aiding the cleanup of the Hanford Site in Washington state. For more than 40 years, reactors located at Hanford produced plutonium for America’s defense program, resulting in millions of gallons of liquid radioactive and chemical waste.
M. R. Gilbert, L. W. Packer, J.-Ch. Sublet, R. A. Forrest
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 177 | Number 3 | July 2014 | Pages 291-306
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE13-76
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The simulation of neutron irradiation–induced transmutation using inventory codes is an important part of the research into materials in various nuclear environments, including fusion, fission, medical physics, nuclear security, and astrophysics. These simulations, even in their simplest form, such as the neutron irradiation of a single pure element, generate large time-dependent data sets of complex results. For each nuclide in the inventory, as a function of time, the output data will include the number of atoms and its contribution to a variety of radiological quantities including total or specific activity, gamma dose, heat output, and ingestion and inhalation hazards. A key challenge when performing inventory calculations is thus to represent the full complexity of the results in a visual and understandable format. This paper discusses two different approaches to visualizing inventory data: (a) nuclide maps, which allow the concentrations or activity contributions from all nuclides in the inventory to be displayed and also for the variation to be traced in time under a specific irradiation scenario, and (b) importance diagrams, which are a neutron spectrum–independent representation of the dominant nuclides that contribute to the activity of an irradiated material. Finally, these techniques are applied in parallel to investigate how the activation response of molybdenum can be improved via isotopic tailoring (enrichment or depletion), which could make it a more viable alternative armor material in the design of fusion reactors.