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Nuclear Installations Safety
Devoted specifically to the safety of nuclear installations and the health and safety of the public, this division seeks a better understanding of the role of safety in the design, construction and operation of nuclear installation facilities. The division also promotes engineering and scientific technology advancement associated with the safety of such facilities.
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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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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.
E. C. Miller, J. K. Mattingly, S. D. Clarke, C. J. Solomon, B. Dennis, A. Meldrum, S. A. Pozzi
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 176 | Number 2 | February 2014 | Pages 167-185
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE12-53
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Simulations of neutron multiplicity measurements of a highly multiplicative plutonium sphere measured with a moderated array of 3He proportional counters have consistently overpredicted the mean and variance of the measured multiplicity distribution. In contrast, identical experiments using a 252Cf source have been accurately simulated. This paper outlines a sensitivity analysis of several key parameters that could account for the overprediction in the simulation of the plutonium sphere. Parameters that were analyzed include source-detector distance, detector dead time, variations in density and volume of the plutonium, and the value of for v̅ 239Pu-induced fission. Of these parameters, the only factor that accounted for the overprediction within reasonable bounds was a change in the value of the 239Pu v̅. The sensitivity analysis showed that a small change (1.14% reduction) in the value of v̅ dramatically improved the simulated results.