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Division Spotlight
Radiation Protection & Shielding
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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2024 ANS Winter Conference and Expo
November 17–21, 2024
Orlando, FL|Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld
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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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Tank waste operations resume at Idaho’s IWTU
The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management announced yesterday that waste processing operations have resumed at the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) at the Idaho National Laboratory Site. The resumption of operations follows the completion of two maintenance campaigns at the radioactive liquid waste treatment facility.
Paul Korinko, Richard Wyrwas, William Spencer, Brent Peters, Edward Stein, Dale Hitchcock
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 71 | Number 3 | April 2017 | Pages 403-409
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1293415
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Tritium is highly reactive with many materials. It is adsorbed onto and absorbed through the surface of containment vessels subsequently modifying the contained gas composition by isotopic exchange and catalytic reactions with surface elements and adsorbed gas species. Savannah River Tritium Enterprise (SRTE) uses a proprietary surface treatment that is intended to render the surface inert. Unfortunately, this process has not proven to be sufficiently robust for containing tritium gas standards. SRTE has funded a project that will explore the effects of electropolishing and vacuum and oxidizing thermal treatments on surface passivation of stainless steel (SS). Herein, a statistically designed series of experiments will be discussed that will inform optimized parameters for acid composition, current density, and other electrochemical process variables for the passivation of SS. The surfaces were analyzed using Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS), Auger Electron Spectroscopy (AES), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Novel techniques to characterize the passive layers are also being developed. In future experiments, gas sample bottles will be loaded with protium and deuterium to determine the relative exchange characteristics of the treated vessels. Previous work has indicated that if little protium ingrowth occurs or few contaminant species form, e.g., methane or ammonia, and little hydrogen exchange occurs in a protium and deuterium gas mixture the treatment is suitable for maintaining the tritium stability. This statement is not intended to imply that tritium, deuterium, protium mixes will not exchange, only that these results are useful as a screening tool prior to tritium exposure.