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Accelerator Applications
The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
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2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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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.
Constantine P. Tzanos, B. Dionne
Nuclear Technology | Volume 176 | Number 1 | October 2011 | Pages 93-105
Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT11-A12545
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The simulation of the BR2 test A/400/1 was undertaken to support the safety analysis of the conversion of the BR2 research reactor to low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel and to extend the validation basis of the RELAP code for analysis of the conversion of research reactors from highly enriched fuel to LEU. This test was characterized by a steady-state peak heat flux of 400 W/cm2 , total loss of flow without loss of system pressure, reactor scram, flow reversal, and reactor cooling by natural convection. This paper presents the RELAP analysis of test A/400/1 and the comparison of code predictions with experimental measurements of peak cladding temperatures during the transient at different axial locations in an instrumented fuel assembly. The simulations show that accurate representation of the pump coastdown characteristics and of the power distribution, especially after reactor scram, between the fuel assemblies and the moderator/reflector regions are critical for correct prediction of the peak cladding temperatures during the transient. Detailed MCNP and ORIGEN simulations were performed to compute the power distribution between the fuel assemblies and the moderator/reflector regions. With these distributions, the predicted peak cladding temperatures were in a good agreement with experimental measurements.