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Division Spotlight
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
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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Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Bacteria found to reduce uranium mobility in clay
Researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) research laboratory in Germany have investigated a microorganism capable of transforming water-soluble hexavalent uranium [U(VI)] to the less-mobile tetravalent uranium [U(IV)]. The researchers found that the sulfate-reducing bacterium Desulfosporosinus hippei, a relative of naturally occurring microorganisms present in clay rock and bentonite, showed a relatively fast removal of uranium from clay pore water.
Charles W. Forsberg, Stephen Lam, David M. Carpenter, Dennis G. Whyte, Raluca Scarlat, Cristian Contescu, Liu Wei, John Stempien, Edward Blandford
Nuclear Technology | Volume 197 | Number 2 | February 2017 | Pages 119-139
Critical Review | doi.org/10.13182/NT16-101
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Three advanced nuclear power systems use liquid salt coolants that generate tritium and thus face the common challenges of containing and capturing tritium to prevent its release to the environment. The fluoride salt–cooled high-temperature reactor (FHR) uses clean fluoride salt coolants and the same graphite-matrix coated-particle fuel as high-temperature gas-cooled reactors. Molten salt reactors (MSRs) dissolve the fuel in a fluoride or chloride salt with release of fission product tritium into the salt. In most FHR and MSR systems, the baseline salts contain lithium where isotopically separated 7Li is proposed to minimize tritium production from neutron interactions with the salt. The Chinese Academy of Sciences plans to start operation of a 2-MW(thermal) molten salt test reactor by 2020. For high-magnetic-field fusion machines, the use of lithium enriched in 6Li is proposed to maximize tritium generation—the fuel for a fusion machine. Advances in superconductors that enable higher power densities may require the use of molten lithium salts for fusion blankets and as coolants.
Recent technical advances in these three reactor classes have resulted in increased government and private interest and the beginning of a coordinated effort to address the tritium control challenges in 700°C liquid salt systems. We describe characteristics of salt-cooled fission and fusion machines, the basis for growing interest in these technologies, tritium generation in molten salts, the environment for tritium capture, models for high-temperature tritium transport in salt systems, alternative strategies for tritium control, and ongoing experimental work. Several methods to control tritium appear viable. Limited experimental data are the primary constraint for designing efficient cost-effective methods of tritium control.