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Division Spotlight
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
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!
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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.
Xiaodan Yang, Huiqiu Deng, Nengwen Hu, Shifang Xiao, Cuilan Ren, Ping Huai, Chengbin Wang, Xiaofan Li, Wangyu Hu
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 66 | Number 1 | July-August 2014 | Pages 112-117
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST13-742
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Tungsten (W) is a promising candidate as for the plasma-facing material in future nuclear fusion reactors. The interstitial helium (He) atoms in bulk tungsten will degrade seriously the mechanical properties of tungsten. In the present paper the effect of interstitial He atoms on the production and evolution of defects in irradiated tungsten has been investigated using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Under the conditions of different primary-knocked atom (PKA) energies and irradiation temperatures, it is found that the interstitial He atoms increase the generation of Frenkel pairs, and this tendency can be greatly promoted by increasing the PKA energy and irradiation temperature. The interstitial He atoms can also increase the displacement cascade efficiency and impact greatly on the structure of radiation-induced defects in tungsten.
