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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 8–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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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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Japan gets new U for enrichment as global power and fuel plans grow
President Trump is in Japan today, with a visit with new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on the agenda. Takaichi, who took office just last week as Japan’s first female prime minister, has already spoken in favor of nuclear energy and of accelerating the restart of Japan’s long-shuttered power reactors, as Reuters and others have reported. Much of the uranium to power those reactors will be enriched at Japan’s lone enrichment facility—part of Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd.’s Rokkasho fuel complex—which accepted its first delivery of fresh uranium hexafluoride (UF₆) in 11 years earlier this month.
Amalia Chambon, Luca Zanini
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 198 | Number 2 | February 2024 | Pages 411-422
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2023.2194202
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The European Spallation Source (ESS) is currently under construction in Lund, Sweden. At the time of the first beam-on-target, foreseen in 2025, a first set of neutron scattering instruments will be commissioned, in addition to a test beamline for characterization of the source. For every planned beamline, all optics components will already have been installed in the monolith shielding surrounding the spallation target, but instruments will still be under construction in the neutron bunker area. Blocks of shielding, referred to as temporary beam stops or wall plugs, are then required to capture neutrons that will come out through the bunker wall feedthroughs during operation. This paper presents the results of parametric studies carried out to design temporary beam stops to assess the possibilities of reducing the weight and cost of such components and also to investigate the shielding efficiency of a wall plug as an alternative solution.