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
Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
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
College students help develop waste-measuring device at Hanford
A partnership between Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) and Washington State University has resulted in the development of a device to measure radioactive and chemical tank waste at the Hanford Site. WRPS is the contractor at Hanford for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management.
Kwang-Wook Kim, Dong-Yong Chung, Han-Bum Yang, Jea-Kwan Lim, Eil-Hee Lee, Kee-Chan Song, Kyuseok Song
Nuclear Technology | Volume 166 | Number 2 | May 2009 | Pages 170-179
Technical Papers | Reprocessing | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A7403
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This work studied a conceptual process to recover uranium alone from spent nuclear fuel using high-alkaline carbonate media with hydrogen peroxide for the purposes of reducing the volume of high-level active waste and recycling of uranium from the spent fuel with greatly enhanced proliferation resistance, environmental friendliness, and operational safety. The transuranium (TRU) elements were evaluated to be undissolved and precipitated together with other fission products during the oxidative leaching of uranium from the spent fuel. The leaching ratio of uranium dioxide to TRU dioxide from spent fuel in the carbonate solution with H2O2 was estimated to be more than about 108. Only Cs, Tc, Mo, and Te among the major fission products in the spent fuel were dissolved together in the carbonate solution. In the carbonate solution with H2O2, UO2 was dissolved in the form of uranyl peroxo-carbonato complex ions, which could be recovered in the form of uranium peroxide precipitate with a very low solubility by acidification of the solution in a succeeding step. All the inorganic salts of Na2CO3, NaOH, and HNO3 used in the process suggested could be almost completely recovered and recycled into the process again without any generation of secondary wastes.