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Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
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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
Lightbridge announces first U-Zr fuel rod samples extruded at INL
Lightbridge Corporation announced today that it has reached “a critical milestone” in the development of its extruded solid fuel technology. Coupon samples using an alloy of zirconium and depleted uranium—not the high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) that Lightbridge plans to use to manufacture its fuel for the commercial market—were extruded at Idaho National Laboratory’s Materials and Fuels Complex.
Scott Holcombe, Staffan Jacobsson Svärd, Knut Eitrheim, Lars Hallstadius, Christofer Willman
Nuclear Technology | Volume 184 | Number 1 | October 2013 | Pages 96-106
Technical Paper | Source Term Assessment / Techniques for Measurements of Nuclear Data / Nondestructive Examination/Testing Methods | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-A19871
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Fission gases are produced as a result of fission reactions in nuclear fuel. Most of these gases remain trapped within the fuel pellets, but some may be released to the fuel rod internal gas volume under certain conditions. This phenomenon of fission gas release is important for fuel performance since the released gases can degrade the thermal properties of the fuel rod fill gas and contribute to increasing fuel rod internal pressure.Various destructive and nondestructive methods are available for determining the amount of fission gas release; however, the current methods are primarily useful for determining the integrated fission gas release fraction, i.e., the amount of fission gas produced in the fuel that has been released to the free rod volume over the entire lifetime of a nuclear fuel rod.In this work, a method is proposed for determining the fission gas release that occurs during short irradiation sequences. The proposed method is based on spectroscopic measurements of gamma rays emitted in the decay of short-lived fission gas isotopes. Determining such sequence-specific fission gas release can be of interest when evaluating the fuel behavior for selected times during irradiation, such as during power ramps. The data obtained in this type of measurement may also be useful for investigating the mechanisms behind fission gas release for fuel at high burnup.The method is demonstrated based on the analysis of experimental gamma-ray spectra previously collected using equipment not dedicated for this purpose; however, the analysis indicates the feasibility of the method. Further evaluation of the method is planned, using dedicated equipment at the Halden Boiling Water Reactor.