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
Materials Science & Technology
The objectives of MSTD are: promote the advancement of materials science in Nuclear Science Technology; support the multidisciplines which constitute it; encourage research by providing a forum for the presentation, exchange, and documentation of relevant information; promote the interaction and communication among its members; and recognize and reward its members for significant contributions to the field of materials science in nuclear technology.
Meeting Spotlight
Conference on Nuclear Training and Education: A Biennial International Forum (CONTE 2025)
February 3–6, 2025
Amelia Island, FL|Omni Amelia Island Resort
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
Jan 2025
Jul 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
February 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
How to talk about nuclear
In your career as a professional in the nuclear community, chances are you will, at some point, be asked (or volunteer) to talk to at least one layperson about the technology you know and love. You might even be asked to present to a whole group of nonnuclear folks, perhaps as a pitch to some company tangential to your company’s business. So, without further ado, let me give you some pointers on the best way to approach this important and surprisingly complicated task.
Alexander S. Khapov, Sergey K. Grishechkin, Vladimir G. Kiselev
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 67 | Number 2 | March 2015 | Pages 412-415
Proceedings of TRITIUM 2013 | doi.org/10.13182/FST14-T41
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Tritium permeation through structural materials is a key issue in many activities linked with tritium handling both for radiological safety and accountancy reasons to say nothing of economical aspect: tritium is not the cheapest material in the world. It is widely recognized that ceramic coatings provide an attractive solution to lower tritium permeation in structural materials. Alumina based ceramic coatings have the highest permeation reduction factor for hydrogen. Nevertheless even small cracking will significantly spoil the permeation reduction factor of a protecting coating. Nowadays for hydrogenating neutron tube targets with tritium “VNIIA” uses working chambers manufactured by pressing of alumina based ceramics. These chambers have revealed extremely low hydrogen permeation upon conditions of their application. For this reason an attempt was made to apply low porous ceramics as a structural material of a bed body for tritium storage in a setup used for hydrogenating neutron tube targets at “VNIIA”. The present article introduces the design of the bed. This bed possesses essentially less hydrogen permeation factor than traditionally used beds with stainless steel body. Bed heating in order to recover hydrogen from the bed is suggested to be implemented by high frequency induction means. Inductive heating allows decreasing the time necessary for tritium release from the bed as well as power consumption. Both of these factors mean less thermal power release into glove box where a setup for tritium handling is installed and thus causes fewer problems with pressure regulations inside the glove box. Inductive heating allows raising tritium sorbent material temperature up to melting point. The latter allows achieving nearly full tritium recovery.