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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.
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
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.
F. Nagase, R. O. Gauntt, M. Naito
Nuclear Technology | Volume 196 | Number 3 | December 2016 | Pages 499-510
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NT16-10
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Benchmark Study of the Accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (BSAF) project, run by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development/Nuclear Energy Agency, was established in November 2012. The primary objectives of this benchmark study are to estimate accident progression and status inside the nuclear reactors, including the distribution of fuel debris, and consequently, to contribute to the decommissioning activity at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Altogether, 17 organizations from eight countries calculated the thermohydraulic behavior inside the three reactors for the time span of about 6 days from the occurrence of the earthquake with their severe accident integral codes. Since many boundary conditions are unknown for the accident, those necessary for the calculation were discussed and determined by the participants.
The results submitted were compared on coolant level change, hydrogen generation, initiation and progression of melt in fuel bundle and control blade, failure of reactor pressure vessel, distribution and composition of molten and solidified materials, and progression of the molten core–concrete interaction. Finally, the current estimates of the accident progression and status inside the reactors were summarized together with the still remaining uncertainties and data needs as the output from the project.