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The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
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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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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
E. M. Fearon, R. G. Garza, C. M. Griffith, S. R. Mayhugh, E. R. Mapoles, J. D. Sater, P. C. Souers, R. T. Tsugawa, J. R. Gaines, G. W. Collins
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 14 | Number 2 | September 1988 | Pages 864-868
Tritium Properties and Interactions with Material | Proceedings of the Third Topical Meeting on Tritium Technology in Fission, Fusion and Isotopic Applications (Toronto, Ontario, Canada, May 1-6, 1988) | doi.org/10.13182/FST88-A25243
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Regular equimolar deuterium-tritium is a mixture of 25 mol% T2-50% DT-25% D2. We have synthesized molecular DT of greater purity by the reaction run at 243 K. With both the alcohol and reactor-to-cryostat transfer lines at room temperature, we obtain 88 mol% DT purity. By cooling the alcohol and holding the transfer lines at 80 K, the yield rose to 95% DT. The DT disproportionated to D2 and T2 with a 1/e time constant of about 100 hr in the liquid at 20.5 K. Nuclear magnetic resonance data showed that the eventual T2-DT-D2 equilibrium is probably a “hot-atom” one.
