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.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
May 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2026
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
WIPP: Lessons in transportation safety
As part of a future consent-based approach by the federal government to site new deep geologic repositories for nuclear waste, local communities and states that are considering hosting such facilities are sure to have many questions. Currently, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico is the only example of such a repository in operation, and it offers the opportunity for state and local officials to visit and judge for themselves the risks and benefits of hosting a similar facility. But its history can also provide lessons for these officials, particularly the political process leading up to the opening of WIPP, the safety of WIPP operations and transportation of waste from generator facilities to the site, and the economic impacts the project has had on the local area of Carlsbad, as well as the rest of the state of New Mexico.
Khaled Talaat, Osman Anderoglu
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 196 | Number 10 | October 2022 | Pages 1209-1223
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2022.2062107
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Mass transfer is the dominant mode of structural material corrosion in energy systems employing heavy liquid metal coolant such as lead-cooled reactors. Modeling efforts in the literature have focused on materials science aspects, such as diffusive transport of alloying elements in structural materials and oxide layers, oxide layer growth and erosion, and species dissolution at the interface, but they have overlooked convective transport which is often represented by simplified one-dimensional models with no transverse convection. Here, within a Lagrangian framework, we particularly study the convective transport of dissolved elements at specimen boundaries in a flowing molten lead loop. Three-dimensional transient Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes simulations coupled with particle transport are carried out to compare convective transport in lead and other coolants, such as lead-bismuth eutectic, pressurized water, and sodium. Transverse convection in the narrow test section is observed to occur at a timescale comparable to longitudinal (downstream) transport and removal of particles from the test section, which highlights the need for three-dimensional modeling in the present setup. The effects of temperature, surface roughness, and mean flow velocity on convective transport in lead are investigated. While mean flow velocity is the dominant variable affecting convective mass transfer, increased surface roughness and reduced temperature are also shown herein to moderately enhance convective transfer.