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
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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
Aug 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
September 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
August 2025
Latest News
IAEA program uses radioisotopes to protect rhinos
After two years of testing, the International Atomic Energy Agency and the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, have begun officially implementing the Rhisotope Project, an innovative effort to combat rhino poaching and trafficking by leveraging nuclear technology.
A. Bükki-Deme, P. Calderoni, D. Demange, E. Fanghänel, T.-L. Le, M. Sirch, I. Ricapito
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 71 | Number 4 | May 2017 | Pages 527-531
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1288976
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
ZrCo is a well-known tritium storage material and has been studied intensively in the literature. The most interesting properties with regards to the thermodynamics of the ZrCo-H system are the very low H2 partial pressure in equilibrium with ZrCoH3 at room temperature and the ease to reach sufficiently high temperature to completely release the stored H2. These properties motivate also to use ZrCo not as a simple storage, but rather as a concentrator of hydrogen isotopologues from inert gases like He. With such function, ZrCo getter beds are the reference solution adopted in the conceptual design of the tritium extraction system of the European Test Blanket Modules (TBM) to replace the cryogenic molecular sieve bed previously proposed. An experimental campaign was carried out on ZrCo in order to consolidate this choice. The results confirmed that ZrCo performs well as getter material but only substantially below the maximum loading capacity. They revealed that the dynamic thermo-mechanical response of the material, controlled by temperature and H2 concentration, is the main limiting factor for the component performance.