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
Nuclear Installations Safety
Devoted specifically to the safety of nuclear installations and the health and safety of the public, this division seeks a better understanding of the role of safety in the design, construction and operation of nuclear installation facilities. The division also promotes engineering and scientific technology advancement associated with the safety of such facilities.
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
May 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Glass strategy: Hanford’s enhanced waste glass program
The mission of the Department of Energy’s Office of River Protection (ORP) is to complete the safe cleanup of waste resulting from decades of nuclear weapons development. One of the most technologically challenging responsibilities is the safe disposition of approximately 56 million gallons of radioactive waste historically stored in 177 tanks at the Hanford Site in Washington state.
ORP has a clear incentive to reduce the overall mission duration and cost. One pathway is to develop and deploy innovative technical solutions that can advance baseline flow sheets toward higher efficiency operations while reducing identified risks without compromising safety. Vitrification is the baseline process that will convert both high-level and low-level radioactive waste at Hanford into a stable glass waste form for long-term storage and disposal.
Although vitrification is a mature technology, there are key areas where technology can further reduce operational risks, advance baseline processes to maximize waste throughput, and provide the underpinning to enhance operational flexibility; all steps in reducing mission duration and cost.
H. Takahashi, A. Okamoto, Y. Kawamura, T. Kumagai, A. Daibo, S. Kitajima
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 63 | Number 1 | May 2013 | Pages 404-407
doi.org/10.13182/FST13-A16969
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Keeping compatibility between steady state gas puffing and stable radio frequency (RF) discharge, helium recombining plasma production was achieved in an RF plasma device. In this experiment, axial position of orifice, which suppresses backflow of secondary gas, was modified to increase electron density at a test region. Changing neutral pressure at the test region from 11 Pa to 21 Pa, the electron temperature, the electron density and the wavelength spectrum were measured. The electron temperature decreased with increasing neutral pressure and finally becomes about 3 eV. The electron density shows similar pressure dependence as the electron temperature. When the neutral pressure increases to 15 Pa, the line spectra from highly excited helium atoms were clearly observed. The electron temperature estimated from these line spectral intensities is about 0.05 eV, which indicates that the electron density reduction is caused by volumetric recombination occurring at the periphery of the plasma column.