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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.
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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 Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Bipartisan Fusion Energy Act pushes for regulatory clarity
Sen. Alex Padilla (D., Calif.) introduced the Fusion Energy Act (S. 4151) last month with a bipartisan group of cosponsors—John Cornyn (R., Texas), Cory Booker (D., N.J.), Todd Young (R., Ind.), and Patty Murray (D., Wash.). The legislation would codify the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s regulatory authority over commercial fusion energy systems to streamline the creation of clear federal regulations that will support the development of commercial fusion power plants—and would require a report within one year on a study of risk- and performance-based, design-specific licensing frameworks for “mass-manufactured fusion machines.
“Congress must do everything in its power to ensure continued U.S. leadership in developing commercial fusion energy facilities,” said Padilla as he introduced the bill. “The Fusion Energy Act would provide regulatory certainty for investors as the NRC develops and streamlines frameworks for such facilities.”
Mario H. Fontana
Nuclear Technology | Volume 101 | Number 3 | March 1993 | Pages 282-298
Technical Paper | Severe Accident Technology / Nuclear Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT93-A34791
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The issues affecting high-pressure melt ejection (HPME) and the consequential containment pressur-ization from direct containment heating (DCH), as they affect advanced light water reactors (ALWRs), specifically advanced pressurized water reactors (APWRs), were reviewed by the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Reactor Severe Accident Program (ARSAP). Recommendations from ARSAP regarding the design of APWRs to minimize DCH are embodied within the Electric Power Research Institute ALWR Utility Requirements Document, which specifies (a) a large, strong containment; (b) an in-containment refueling water storage tank; (c) a reactor cavity configuration that minimizes energy transport to the containment atmosphere; and (d) a reactor coolant system depressur-ization system. Experimental and analytical efforts, which have focused on current-generation plants, and analyses for APWRs were reviewed. Although DCH is a subject of continuous research and considerable uncertainties remain, it is the judgment of the ARSAP that reactors complying with the recommended design requirements would have a low probability of early containment failure due to HPME and DCH.