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Division Spotlight
Isotopes & Radiation
Members are devoted to applying nuclear science and engineering technologies involving isotopes, radiation applications, and associated equipment in scientific research, development, and industrial processes. Their interests lie primarily in education, industrial uses, biology, medicine, and health physics. Division committees include Analytical Applications of Isotopes and Radiation, Biology and Medicine, Radiation Applications, Radiation Sources and Detection, and Thermal Power Sources.
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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Proving DRACO will deliver
The United States is now closer than it has been in over five decades to launching the first nuclear thermal rocket into space, thanks to DRACO—the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Orbit.
Amnon Katz, Adrian R. Brough, R. James Kirkpatrick, Leslie J. Struble, J. Francis Young
Nuclear Technology | Volume 129 | Number 2 | February 2000 | Pages 236-245
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management and Disposal | doi.org/10.13182/NT00-A3059
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A simulated low-level nuclear waste solution was studied for possible solidification in a cement-based matrix. The waste composition was based on an alkaline mixture of Na3(PO4)12H2O, NaNO2, Na2CO3 and Al(NO3)39H2O, and the binder composition was cement (21%), fly ash (68%), and attapulgite clay (11%). The materials were mixed at a high solution-to-binder ratio of 1.0 l/kg, and curing temperatures varied from 45 to 90°C. The effect of changes in solution concentration was studied. Solution concentration ranged from a dilution to 5.5% (designed to simulate a possible off-gas condensate obtained during vitrification of the waste) to the full concentration of the simulated waste. Compressive strength and early age heat development increased as the concentration was increased up to 67%, but at higher concentrations both compressive strength and heat development decreased. X-ray diffraction and 29Si and 27Al magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy pointed to a high degree of reaction of the fly ash in the mixes and formation of zeolites at the higher concentrations. Na-P1 zeolite formed in increasing quantities as the concentration was raised to 67%, but at the highest concentrations the zeolite formed was sodalite.