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
Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
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
Apr 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
NWMO to select Canadian repository site this year
Canada’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization, a not-for-profit organization responsible for the long-term management of the country’s intermediate- and high-level radioactive waste, is set to select a site for a deep geologic repository by the end of the year.
Darryl D. Siemer
Nuclear Technology | Volume 185 | Number 1 | January 2014 | Pages 100-108
Technical Note | Reprocessing | doi.org/10.13182/NT12-164
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The fuel reprocessing (recycling) system invoked by the developers of Oak Ridge National Laboratory's molten salt–based breeder (of 233U from 232Th) reactor (MSBR) would generate high-level reprocessing waste consisting of ∼3 mol % fission product fluoride salts in a matrix consisting primarily of sodium and potassium fluoride salts. This technical note discusses a management scenario for such waste that invokes the following steps: (a) mixing of the waste salt with dilute nitric acid with a pug mill; (b) volatilization/separation of the bulk of the fluoride as hydrofluoric acid (HF) with a wiped film evaporator; (c) vitrification of the thus “converted” (to nitrate) salt waste to an iron phosphate glass waste form with a stirred melter; (d) reduction of the nitric acid/NOx in the combined off-gas to elemental nitrogen with hot charcoal; (e) condensation of the water and HF in the reduced off-gas; (f) neutralization of that solution with an alkali (sodium and/or lithium and/or potassium) hydroxide; (g) drying of that solution to produce the fluoride salts utilized by the process; and finally, (h) off-gas disposal after treatment implemented with a condenser, wet electrostatic precipitator, catalytic converter, and high-efficiency particulate air filters. This scenario's advantages relative to those that invoke the preparation of a synthetic fluoride mineral (cation-substituted fluorapatite) waste form include much higher effective waste loading, lower cost, and a product (glass) more consistent with stakeholder expectations.