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Division Spotlight
Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
Meeting Spotlight
2025 ANS Annual Conference
June 15–18, 2025
Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott Downtown
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
Former NRC commissioners lend support to efforts to eliminate mandatory hearings
A group of nine former nuclear regulatory commissioners sent a letter Wednesday to the current Nuclear Regulatory Commission members lending support to efforts to get rid of mandatory hearings in the licensing process, which should speed up the process by three to six months and save millions of dollars.
Yoichi Momozaki, Dae H. Cho, James J. Sienicki, Anton Moisseytsev
Nuclear Technology | Volume 171 | Number 2 | August 2010 | Pages 153-160
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT10-A10780
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A series of experiments was performed to investigate the potential for plugging of narrow flow channels of sodium by impurities (e.g., oxides). In the first phase of the experiments, clean sodium was circulated through the test sections simulating flow channels in a compact diffusion-bonded heat exchanger such as a printed circuit heat exchanger. The primary objective was to see if small channels whose cross sections are semicircles of 2, 4, and 6 mm in diameter are usable in liquid sodium applications where sodium purity is carefully controlled. It was concluded that the 2-mm channels, the smallest of the three, could be used in clean sodium systems at temperatures even as low as 100 to 110°C without plugging. In the second phase, sodium oxide was added to the loop, and the oxygen concentration in the liquid sodium was controlled by means of varying the cold-trap temperature. Intentional plugging was induced by creating a cold spot in the test sections, and the subsequent plugging behavior was observed. It was found that plugging in the 2-mm test section was initiated by lowering the cold spot temperature below the cold-trap temperature by 10 to 30°C. Unplugging of the plugged channels was accomplished by heating the affected test section.