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Division Spotlight
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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2025 ANS Annual Conference
June 15–18, 2025
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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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
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
H. Brunnader, W. T. Shmayda, D. R. Harding, L. D. Lund, R. Janezic
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 41 | Number 3 | May 2002 | Pages 840-844
Design and Model | Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Tritium Science and Technology Tsukuba, Japan November 12-16, 2001 | doi.org/10.13182/FST02-A22703
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
To safely carry out its experimental program, the Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) at the University of Rochester has commissioned the design, fabrication, and installation of a Tritium Removal System to clean up the various exhaust streams and to control tritium activity in the glove-boxes. This system, which is described in this paper, is optimized for minimum environmental impact and maximum personnel safety. It uses the best available technologies to extract tritium from inert gas streams in the elemental form. The various technologies considered and the rationale for their selection are discussed in detail. This approach reduces the volumes of effluent that require treatment to the extent practical and also avoids the need to oxidize HT to HTO with its higher radiotoxicity, thereby contributing to safety.
