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.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
Apr 2026
Jan 2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2026
Nuclear Technology
February 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
3D Printing Possibilities: Additive Manufacturing Impact Limiters for Transportation Casks
With the significant advances in additive manufacturing (AM), otherwise known as 3D printing, Orano Federal Services and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte recently re-examined the capabilities to print impact limiters for transportation casks used to ship spent nuclear fuel. Impact limiters protect transportation casks (sometimes also referred to as transportation overpacks) and their contents during an accident. Impact limiter designs must withstand testing based on a certain significance level of hypothetical accidents, including drops, crushing, fires, and immersion in water.
R.A. Surette, R.G.C. McElroy
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 14 | Number 2 | September 1988 | Pages 1141-1146
Tritium Safety | doi.org/10.13182/FST88-1
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This presentation describes some experiments to investigate the removal, regrowth and evolution of tritium from stainless steel planchets that had been exposed to elemental tritium. The total tritium sorbed onto and into a planchet was measured by heating the planchet and collecting the evolved tritium. The removable surface activity was determined from swipe measurements. The evolution of tritium from the planchets was determined by leaving some of the planchets exposed to air for almost one year and then measuring the tritium remaining. The swipe experiments indicate that a removal efficiency of 10% is representative but usually conservative for an undisturbed surface. In general, the fraction of activity that is removable is dependent on the surface history. If a cleaned surface is left undisturbed for a few days removable surface activity may regrow. If the surface is left undisturbed for a long period of time (months) some of the tritium in the planchet will be lost to the atmosphere.