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The Young Members Group works to encourage and enable all young professional members to be actively involved in the efforts and endeavors of the Society at all levels (Professional Divisions, ANS Governance, Local Sections, etc.) as they transition from the role of a student to the role of a professional. It sponsors non-technical workshops and meetings that provide professional development and networking opportunities for young professionals, collaborates with other Divisions and Groups in developing technical and non-technical content for topical and national meetings, encourages its members to participate in the activities of the Groups and Divisions that are closely related to their professional interests as well as in their local sections, introduces young members to the rules and governance structure of the Society, and nominates young professionals for awards and leadership opportunities available to members.
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2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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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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Retrieval of nuclear waste canisters from a borehole
Borehole disposal of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level waste (HLW) uses off-the-shelf directional drilling technology developed and commercialized by the oil and gas sectors. It is a technology that has been gaining traction in recent years in the nuclear industry. Disposal can be done in one or more boreholes (including an array) drilled into suitable sedimentary, igneous, or metamorphic host rocks. Waste is encapsulated in specialized corrosion-resistant canisters, which are placed end to end in disposal sections of relatively small-diameter boreholes that have been cased and fluid-filled. After emplacement, the vertical access hole is plugged and backfilled as an engineered barrier.
Bernd Grambow, Andreas Loida, Emmanuel Smailos
Nuclear Technology | Volume 121 | Number 2 | February 1998 | Pages 174-188
Technical Paper | German Direct Disposal Project | doi.org/10.13182/NT98-A2830
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The results are summarized of 15 yr of German research on spent fuel with respect to its suitability as a waste form disposed of in a repository located in the Gorleben salt dome. Within the multibarrier system for long-term isolation of high-level waste (HLW), the innermost engineered barrier "canistered spent fuel" contributes essentially to isolating radionuclides from the biosphere if a salt brine were to come into contact with the waste form. A large fraction of the radionuclide contents of the reacted fuel mass would become reimmobilized within secondary alteration products and on container corrosion products, but inevitably a certain nuclide-specific fraction would be released into the aqueous geochemical environment. The corrosion resistance of the fuel and the radionuclide mobility are not inherent materials properties but also depend on geological disposal conditions, packing concepts, and radioactive decay. In particular, the availability of oxidants is critical, controlling spent-fuel alteration rates and alteration products as well as radionuclide solubilities. Spent fuel is at least as suitable for final disposal as is HLW glass.