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Division Spotlight
Radiation Protection & Shielding
The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
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
Commercial nuclear innovation "new space" age
In early 2006, a start-up company launched a small rocket from a tiny island in the Pacific. It exploded, showering the island with debris. A year later, a second launch attempt sent a rocket to space but failed to make orbit, burning up in the atmosphere. Another year brought a third attempt—and a third failure. The following month, in September 2008, the company used the last of its funds to launch a fourth rocket. It reached orbit, making history as the first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to do so.
C. H. M. Broeders, G. Kessler
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 156 | Number 1 | May 2007 | Pages 1-23
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE07-A2681
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Denatured reactor plutonium with a 238Pu isotopic content of ~6% or somewhat more can be produced in a suitably adapted fuel cycle. Several such fuel cycle options are proposed. Reenriched reprocessed 235U/236U/238U, which can be blended with some low-enriched 235U/238U fuel, leads, after one burnup cycle of 50 to 60 GWd/tonne in a pressurized water reactor (PWR) core, to denatured reactor plutonium with more than 8% 238Pu isotopic content. Presently existing reactor plutonium with ~2.8% 238Pu from spent fuel with a burnup of 50 GWd/tonne can also be converted in PWRs, during one or two burnup cycles over 50 to 60 GWd/tonne into denatured reactor plutonium. This is also demonstrated by burnup calculations for different fuel cycle scenarios using, e.g., reenriched reprocessed uranium, thorium, and minor actinides. Denatured reactor plutonium with 6% or somewhat more 238Pu isotopic content can be considered as a proliferation-resistant fuel and could be treated like low-enriched (<20% 235U) uranium fuel. It can be incinerated by multiple recycling in PWRs or fast reactors. Advanced aqueous reprocessing or pyroprocessing as well as related refabrication methods, as they are being developed for transmutation scenarios of the minor actinides, would be best suited for such adapted fuel cycle options. Safeguards needs and aspects for the different proposed fuel cycle options are discussed.