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Decommissioning & Environmental Sciences
The mission of the Decommissioning and Environmental Sciences (DES) Division is to promote the development and use of those skills and technologies associated with the use of nuclear energy and the optimal management and stewardship of the environment, sustainable development, decommissioning, remediation, reutilization, and long-term surveillance and maintenance of nuclear-related installations, and sites. The target audience for this effort is the membership of the Division, the Society, and the public at large.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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Latest News
Nuclear materials testing project brings U.S. and U.K. expertise together
As nations look to nuclear energy as a source of reliable electricity and heat, researchers and industry are developing a new generation of nuclear reactors to fill the need. These advanced nuclear reactors will provide safe, efficient, and economical power that go beyond what the current large light water reactors can do.
But before large-scale deployment of advanced reactors, researchers need to understand and test the safety and performance of the technologies—especially the coolants and materials—that make them possible.
Now, the United States and the United Kingdom have teamed up to test hundreds of advanced nuclear materials.
Dustin Olson, Kirk Shanahan, Binod Rai, Dale Hitchcock, Catherine Housley, George Larsen
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 79 | Number 2 | February 2023 | Pages 95-103
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2022.2116224
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The study of tritium aging effects on materials requires a significant time commitment as a consequence of its 12.3-year half-life, making developmental studies prohibitively difficult and expensive. However, detailed knowledge of long-term aging effects is critical to the development of structural and storage materials for future fusion reactor technologies. As a result, multiple approaches to simulated aging effects have been investigated. We report a method of simulated tritium aging achieved though the incorporation of trapped gases via high-energy ball milling of LaNi4.25Al0.75 alloy storage material. Experimental results verify the presence of trapped gases by a combination of temperature programmed desorption and LECO chemical analysis. Following gas incorporation, we find that many of the degraded hydrogen sorption properties found in aged storage materials are reproduced by the ball milled powders.
