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.
Division Spotlight
Isotopes & Radiation
Members are devoted to applying nuclear science and engineering technologies involving isotopes, radiation applications, and associated equipment in scientific research, development, and industrial processes. Their interests lie primarily in education, industrial uses, biology, medicine, and health physics. Division committees include Analytical Applications of Isotopes and Radiation, Biology and Medicine, Radiation Applications, Radiation Sources and Detection, and Thermal Power Sources.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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
Apr 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2024
Nuclear Technology
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.
S. Rosanvallon et al.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 48 | Number 1 | July-August 2005 | Pages 268-273
Technical Paper | Tritium Science and Technology - Tritium Handling Facilities | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A925
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The JET Fusion Technology (FT) work programme was launched in 2000, in the frame of the European Fusion Development Agreement, to address issues related to JET and ITER. In particular, there are four topics related to tritium being investigated. Based on the experience gained on the existing tokamaks, first calculations indicate that in-vessel tritium retention could represent a burden for ITER operation. Therefore erosion/deposition studies are being performed in order to better understand the layer co-deposition and tritium retention processes in tokamaks. Moreover, testing of in-situ detritiation processes, in particular laser and flash lamp treatments, should assess detritiation techniques for in-vessel components in the ITER-relevant JET configuration.To reduce the constraints on waste disposal, dedicated procedures are being developed for detritiation of metals, graphite, carbon-fibre composites, process and housekeeping waste. During the operational and decommissioning phases of a fusion reactor, many processes will produce tritiated water. Key components for an ITER relevant water detritiation facility are being studied experimentally with the aim of producing a complete design that could be implemented and tested at JET. This paper describes these topics of the FT-programme, the strategy developed and the results obtained so far.