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Division Spotlight
Thermal Hydraulics
The division provides a forum for focused technical dialogue on thermal hydraulic technology in the nuclear industry. Specifically, this will include heat transfer and fluid mechanics involved in the utilization of nuclear energy. It is intended to attract the highest quality of theoretical and experimental work to ANS, including research on basic phenomena and application to nuclear system design.
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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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Glass strategy: Hanford’s enhanced waste glass program
The mission of the Department of Energy’s Office of River Protection (ORP) is to complete the safe cleanup of waste resulting from decades of nuclear weapons development. One of the most technologically challenging responsibilities is the safe disposition of approximately 56 million gallons of radioactive waste historically stored in 177 tanks at the Hanford Site in Washington state.
ORP has a clear incentive to reduce the overall mission duration and cost. One pathway is to develop and deploy innovative technical solutions that can advance baseline flow sheets toward higher efficiency operations while reducing identified risks without compromising safety. Vitrification is the baseline process that will convert both high-level and low-level radioactive waste at Hanford into a stable glass waste form for long-term storage and disposal.
Although vitrification is a mature technology, there are key areas where technology can further reduce operational risks, advance baseline processes to maximize waste throughput, and provide the underpinning to enhance operational flexibility; all steps in reducing mission duration and cost.
Ronald E. Wright, Norman Fletcher, Raymond D. Pearsall, Victor E. Sidnev, John H. Bickel, Aldo Vianello
Nuclear Technology | Volume 143 | Number 2 | August 2003 | Pages 241-245
Technical Note | Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technologies | doi.org/10.13182/NT03-A3413
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Ignalina nuclear power plant (NPP) Units 1 and 2 are Soviet-designed, RBMK (Reaktor Bolshoi Moschnosti Kipyashchiy), channelized, large power-type reactors. The original-design electrical capacity for each unit was 1500 MW. Unit 1 began operating in 1983, and Unit 2 was started up in 1987. In 1994, the government of Lithuania agreed to accept grant support for the Ignalina NPP Safety Improvement Program with funding supplied by the Nuclear Safety Account of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). As conditions for receiving this funding, the Ignalina NPP agreed to prepare a comprehensive safety analysis report that would undergo independent peer review after it was issued. The EBRD Safety Panel oversaw preparation and review of the report. In 1996, the safety analysis report for Unit 1 was completed and delivered to the EBRD. Part of the analyses covered anticipated transients without scram (ATWS). The analysis showed that some ATWS scenarios could lead to unacceptable consequences in <1 min. The EBRD Safety Panel recommended to the government of Lithuania that the Ignalina NPP develop and implement a program of compensatory measures for the control and protection system before the unit would be allowed to return to operation following its 1998 maintenance outage. A compensatory control and protection system that would mitigate the unacceptable consequences was designed, procured, manufactured, tested, and installed. The project was funded by U.S. Department of Energy.