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Accelerator Applications
The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
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2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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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
Glass strategy: Hanford’s enhanced waste glass program
The mission of the Department of Energy’s Office of River Protection (ORP) is to complete the safe cleanup of waste resulting from decades of nuclear weapons development. One of the most technologically challenging responsibilities is the safe disposition of approximately 56 million gallons of radioactive waste historically stored in 177 tanks at the Hanford Site in Washington state.
ORP has a clear incentive to reduce the overall mission duration and cost. One pathway is to develop and deploy innovative technical solutions that can advance baseline flow sheets toward higher efficiency operations while reducing identified risks without compromising safety. Vitrification is the baseline process that will convert both high-level and low-level radioactive waste at Hanford into a stable glass waste form for long-term storage and disposal.
Although vitrification is a mature technology, there are key areas where technology can further reduce operational risks, advance baseline processes to maximize waste throughput, and provide the underpinning to enhance operational flexibility; all steps in reducing mission duration and cost.
Adrian S. Sabau, Kazutoshi Tokunaga, Michael G. Littleton, James O. Kiggans, Jr., Charles R. Schaich, Ralph B. Dinwiddie, Daniel T. Moore, Yoshio Ueda, Yutai Katoh
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 75 | Number 7 | October 2019 | Pages 690-701
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2019.1623571
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Assessing the effect of neutron irradiation of plasma-facing materials has been challenging due to both the technical and radiological challenges involved. In an effort to address the radiological challenges, a facility was developed to conduct high heat flux testing (HHFT) of inherently small samples of neutron-irradiated materials. A new line-focus reflector was designed and fabricated at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for a plasma-arc lamp (PAL) to attain a source heat flux of 12 MW/m2. The new reflector was fabricated with two ports for monitoring specimen condition during HHFT. At the same operational conditions for PAL, the absorbed heat flux in tungsten was increased from 1.39 MW/m2 with the uniform irradiance reflector to 5.12 MW/m2 for the line-focus reflector. This fourfold increase in the heat flux, at the same PAL electrode lifetimes, enabled cost-effective facility operation for a high number of cyclic high heat flux tests. Specifically, the test section is confined to a hemispherical dome, and specimens are bolted directly to a water-cooled copper alloy rod. Temperature measurement in the PAL facility was a main challenge due to a limited line of sight. For the first time in a PAL facility operating at high heat fluxes, the specimen surface temperature was directly measured during HHFT with a pyrometer. The HHFT data, which were obtained in this upgraded PAL facility, demonstrated the facility readiness for irradiated materials.