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2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 8–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
DNFSB’s Summers ends board tenure, extending agency’s loss of quorum
Lee
Summers
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, the independent agency responsible for ensuring that Department of Energy facilities are protective of public health and safety, announced that the board’s acting chairman, Thomas Summers, has concluded his service with the agency, having completed his second term as a board member on October 18.
Summers’ departure leaves Patricia Lee, who joined the DNFSB after being confirmed by the Senate in July 2024, as the board’s only remaining member and acting chair. Lee’s DNFSB board term ends in October 2027.
David W. James, Gregory C. Staack, Simona E. Hunyadi Murph
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 71 | Number 4 | May 2017 | Pages 565-569
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1290971
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Savannah River Tritium Enterprise (SRTE) has used hydride beds to store and process hydrogen isotopes for over two decades. New beds are being designed to use a hydride material – LaNi4.15Al0.85 (LANA.85) – that has a lower plateau pressure than the material previously employed. LANA.85 is expected to have a limited service life due to radiolytic decay of tritium to He-3 within the metal matrix, which will result in degradation of hydride performance. Tritium aging was initiated on a LANA.85 metal hydride sample to look for changes in desorption isotherm performance which occur with aging. Desorption isotherms were collected at 120°C, and 160°C annually. A lower temperature isotherm was collected at 100°C after 2 years of aging. A single absorption isotherm was collected each year at 120°C. After testing, each sample was reloaded with tritium for quiescent aging until the following year. Samples were stored in the beta phase.
Results collected on the virgin material and annually for 2 years of tritium exposure are presented and discussed. The results have shown no unexpected behavior of the LANA.85 materials over the course of tritium exposure. As the service life of a the new hydride bed being designed is greater than 8 years, further annual monitoring and evaluation is recommended to track the effects of tritium exposure on isotherm behavior. Continued evaluation of will reduce the likelihood that unanticipated behaviors will be encountered in full scale production beds within the SRTE Tritium Facility.
