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
2026 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
Latest Magazine Issues
Aug 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
October 2026
Nuclear Technology
September 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
August 2026
Latest News
Second round of Launch Pad selections includes eight newcomers
The National Reactor Innovation Center at Idaho National Laboratory has announced 13 project selections across 12 companies for the Nuclear Energy Launch Pad, a Department of Energy–led program that integrates reactor and fuel facility authorization, testing, and deployment support for private nuclear developers.
The Launch Pad emerged from the Reactor Pilot Program and Fuel Line Pilot Program.
According to INL, projects selected include reactor development and nuclear fuel cycle advancements, including fabrication, enrichment, and conversion technologies.
Jennifer Lyons, Edward Love, Kim Burns
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 71 | Number 4 | May 2017 | Pages 616-621
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1290944
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
TEACUP (Tritium Effluent Analysis and Core-follow, Up-to-date and Predictive) is a tritium management and supplemental core follow program that allows its users to account for reactor coolant system (RCS) tritium sources, generate discharge release estimates, account for downstream river flows and concentrations, and calculate corresponding uncertainties. The program incorporates water balance methodologies, tritium production estimates from secondary startup neutron sources, soluble boron content, reactor coolant system tritium measurements, and seasonal river flow estimates. TEACUP was designed specifically to facilitate the tracking of Tritium Producing Burnable Absorber Rod (TPBAR) permeation since measuring in-reactor permeation directly is not feasible and prediction methodologies have thus far been insufficient. A number of models, calculations, and correlations were developed in order to quantify all of the leading sources and losses of tritium in the RCS. By comparing all of the known contributors and discharges from the RCS tritium inventory to the measured RCS tritium concentration, the unaccounted for balance (within some band of uncertainty) can be attributed to TPBAR permeation. The tritium release estimates to the river generated from TEACUP are validated by comparing them to the measured tritium releases which match well and give confidence that TEACUP is tracking and accounting for tritium appropriately. An additional check on the methodologies within TEACUP is that the cycle-to-cycle trends for tritium permeation per TPBAR are consistent in behavior and the estimated release per TPBAR across each cycle is the same within their uncertainty.