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Decommissioning & Environmental Sciences
The mission of the Decommissioning and Environmental Sciences (DES) Division is to promote the development and use of those skills and technologies associated with the use of nuclear energy and the optimal management and stewardship of the environment, sustainable development, decommissioning, remediation, reutilization, and long-term surveillance and maintenance of nuclear-related installations, and sites. The target audience for this effort is the membership of the Division, the Society, and the public at large.
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2025 ANS Annual Conference
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Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott Downtown
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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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High-temperature plumbing and advanced reactors
The use of nuclear fission power and its role in impacting climate change is hotly debated. Fission advocates argue that short-term solutions would involve the rapid deployment of Gen III+ nuclear reactors, like Vogtle-3 and -4, while long-term climate change impact would rely on the creation and implementation of Gen IV reactors, “inherently safe” reactors that use passive laws of physics and chemistry rather than active controls such as valves and pumps to operate safely. While Gen IV reactors vary in many ways, one thing unites nearly all of them: the use of exotic, high-temperature coolants. These fluids, like molten salts and liquid metals, can enable reactor engineers to design much safer nuclear reactors—ultimately because the boiling point of each fluid is extremely high. Fluids that remain liquid over large temperature ranges can provide good heat transfer through many demanding conditions, all with minimal pressurization. Although the most apparent use for these fluids is advanced fission power, they have the potential to be applied to other power generation sources such as fusion, thermal storage, solar, or high-temperature process heat.1–3
J. C. Gascon, J. Hourtoule, I. Benfatto, S. Nair, J. Tao, J. Goff
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 61 | Number 1 | January 2012 | Pages 47-51
Fusion | Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems | doi.org/10.13182/FST12-A13395
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
ITER is a large-scale scientific experiment (presently under construction in Southern France) to demonstrate it is possible to produce commercial energy from nuclear fusion. In order to achieve nuclear fusion, ITER plant will be directly fed from the 400 kV French National Grid. The transmission grid will be able to provide up to 500 MW for pulsed loads (power converters) as well as 120 MW for continuous loads (auxiliaries systems) with total reactive power up to 200 Mvar demand from the pulsed loads and 48 Mvar from the continuous loads.This paper describes the specific electrical engineering studies performed to ensure the required levels of availability and to reach the required global reliability and availability of ITER project.
