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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!
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Latest News
From South Korea to Belgium: Testing a high-density research reactor fuel
The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute has developed a high-density uranium silicide fuel designed to replace high-enriched uranium in research reactors. Recent irradiation tests appear to be successful, KAERI reports, which means the fuel could be commercialized to continue a key global nuclear nonproliferation effort—converting research reactors to run on low-enriched uranium fuel.
Tsung-Kuang Yeh, Mei-Ya Wang
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 173 | Number 2 | February 2013 | Pages 163-171
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE11-85
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The coolant in a boiling water reactor (BWR) during a cold shutdown usually contains a relatively high level of dissolved oxygen from intrusion of atmospheric air. Accordingly, the structural materials in the primary coolant circuit (PCC) of a BWR could be exposed to a strongly oxidizing environment for a short period of time during a subsequent startup operation. Because there are limited measurable water chemistry data, a well-developed computer code DEMACE was used in the current study to investigate the variations in redox species concentration and in electrochemical corrosion potential (ECP) of components in the PCC of a domestic BWR during startup operations. Our analyses indicated that the dissolved hydrogen level in the reactor coolant at a low power level without steam generation in the core was lower than that at a power level with a minor amount of steam generated in the core. The dissolved oxygen concentrations in the reactor coolant were relatively high and were >500 ppb during startup operations at power levels >2.5%. In the meantime, the concentrations of hydrogen peroxide could be >500 ppb at the core outlet region during startup operations, which renders a strongly oxidizing coolant environment in the entire PCC. The ECPs of structural components in the PCC of the analyzed BWR generally followed the concentration trend of hydrogen peroxide. It was predicted that the coolant environment in a BWR during a plant startup could be highly oxidizing, and the structural components would therefore suffer from a more serious corrosion problem than under operations at the rated power level.