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
Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
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
June 2024
Nuclear Technology
May 2024
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Commercial nuclear innovation "new space" age
In early 2006, a start-up company launched a small rocket from a tiny island in the Pacific. It exploded, showering the island with debris. A year later, a second launch attempt sent a rocket to space but failed to make orbit, burning up in the atmosphere. Another year brought a third attempt—and a third failure. The following month, in September 2008, the company used the last of its funds to launch a fourth rocket. It reached orbit, making history as the first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to do so.
Robert A. Fjeld, Timothy A. DeVol, Russell W. Goff, Matthew D. Blevins, David D. Brown, Steven M. Ince, Alan W. Elzerman, Meredith E. Newman
Nuclear Technology | Volume 135 | Number 2 | August 2001 | Pages 92-108
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT01-A3208
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Laboratory column tests were performed to characterize the mobilities of 60Co, 90Sr, 137Cs, 233U, 239Pu, and 241Am in a basalt sample and a composite of sedimentary interbed from the Snake River Plain at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. The radionuclides were spiked into a synthetic groundwater (pH 8, ionic strength = 0.004 M) and introduced into the columns (D = 2.6 cm, L = 15.2 cm) as finite steps with a width of 1 pore volume followed by unspiked synthetic groundwater. The effluent concentrations were measured continuously for up to 200 pore volumes. Hydrogen-3 was used as a nonreactive tracer in all of the experiments to monitor for channeling. In the basalt sample, the behavior of 90Sr, 137Cs, and 233U was quite different from that of 60Co, 239Pu, and 241Am. The column effluent curves for the former were characterized by single peaks containing, within the limits of experimental uncertainty, all of the activity in the spike. The mobilities were ordered as follows: 233U ([overbar]R = 5.6) > 90Sr ([overbar]R = 29) > 137Cs ([overbar]R = 79). The curves for the other radionuclides were characterized by two or three fractions, each having a distinctly different mobility. Cobalt-60 had high- ([overbar]R = < 3), intermediate- ([overbar]R = 34), and low- (R > 200) mobility fractions. Although a majority of the 239Pu and 241Am had low mobility (R > 200), there were high-mobility (R < 3) fractions of each (17 to 29% for 239Pu and 7 to 12% for 241Am). In sedimentary interbed, mobilities were generally much lower than in basalt. Uranium-233 was the only radionuclide with 100% recovery within 200 displaced pore volumes, and it had a retardation factor of 30. However, high-mobility fractions were observed for 60Co (1 to 4%) and 239Pu (1.1 to 2.4%). These results could have important implications with respect to transport modeling. If the multiple-mobility fractions observed here are also present in the field, transport predictions based on classical modeling approaches that incorporate mobilities from batch sorption experiments are likely to be in error.
