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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.
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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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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.
M. M. R. Williams
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 193 | Number 4 | April 2019 | Pages 327-345
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2018.1531620
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A number of approximate probability distribution functions (pdf’s) for the neutron density are examined with reference to low source startup. The most accurate method for determining the safe source strength, to reduce the likelihood of a rogue transient during startup, is that arising from the Pál-Bell equations. When these equations are extended to include space and energy dependence the numerical work becomes extensive. A pdf is developed which gives results that compare favorably with those from the exact solution but requires very much less numerical work. The method is applicable to space- and energy-dependent problems. Extensive numerical examples are given of the new method and of others which have been proposed over the years. In addition, we explore other approximations, unrelated to the generating function, that can lead to substantial computational savings. We have additionally described the principles behind, and provided a simple review of, the low source algorithm from which anyone unfamiliar with low source concepts can benefit.