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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.
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2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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
Commercial nuclear innovation "new space" age
In early 2006, a start-up company launched a small rocket from a tiny island in the Pacific. It exploded, showering the island with debris. A year later, a second launch attempt sent a rocket to space but failed to make orbit, burning up in the atmosphere. Another year brought a third attempt—and a third failure. The following month, in September 2008, the company used the last of its funds to launch a fourth rocket. It reached orbit, making history as the first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to do so.
Herve Issard, Pascale Abadie
Nuclear Technology | Volume 176 | Number 1 | October 2011 | Pages 2-8
Special Issue Technical Paper | Second Seminar on Accelerated Testing of Materials in Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Waste Storage Systems / Materials for Nuclear Systems | doi.org/10.13182/NT11-A12538
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Dry storage cask materials must withstand severe temperature conditions coming from conservative ambient assumptions and from envelope values of residual heat from spent fuels. TN International (TNI) research and development has consequently developed and characterized neutron-shielding materials that show high shielding capabilities and correspond to the needs of a range of temperatures. Aging tests of specimens have been performed accordingly.This paper shows the results of aging tests on shielding material Vyal-B, a material patented by TNI.TNI Vyal-B shielding material is composed of a thermoset resin matrix (vinylester resin in solution of styrene) and two mineral fillers (alumina hydrate and zinc borate). The cross-linking of the polymer leads to a rigid three-dimensional lattice, solid and resistant to transport conditions, especially the temperatures.TNI Vyal-B's shielding ability for neutron radiation is related to the atomic density of hydrogen and boron. Atomic densities can be calculated from the chemical composition and bulk density of samples, and these two parameters are checked initially just after manufacturing.Assessment of the long-term behavior of TNI Vyal-B shielding material has been carried out through exposition tests of samples at different temperatures (150°C to 170°C). The test results give the variations of chemical composition and density. After the aging tests, the new chemical compositions are taken into account in the shielding analysis of the package. Considering a degradation mechanism following Arrhenius behavior, a maximal temperature of long-term use, for example, for interim storage, was confirmed equal to 160°C.