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.
Division Spotlight
Aerospace Nuclear Science & Technology
Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver 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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Apr 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
May 2025
Latest News
Argonne’s METL gears up to test more sodium fast reactor components
Argonne National Laboratory has successfully swapped out an aging cold trap in the sodium test loop called METL (Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop), the Department of Energy announced April 23. The upgrade is the first of its kind in the United States in more than 30 years, according to the DOE, and will help test components and operations for the sodium-cooled fast reactors being developed now.
Masatoshi Iizuka, Masaaki Akagi, Takashi Omori
Nuclear Technology | Volume 181 | Number 3 | March 2013 | Pages 507-525
Technical Papers | Reprocessing | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-A15807
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A new treatment process was proposed for the anode residue from a molten salt electrorefining step in the pyrometallurgical reprocessing of spent metallic fast reactor fuel. This treatment process consists of two steps: (a) oxidation of the remaining actinides in the anode residue by the addition of CdCl2 and (b) removal of the accompanying chloride by high-temperature distillation. The oxidation of the remaining uranium by CdCl2 was studied using anode residue from previous electrorefining experiments using U-Zr alloys. The reaction between uranium and CdCl2 was completed in [approximately]2 days with a satisfactory chlorine balance among the species in the molten chlorides solvent. A high uranium oxidation rate was attained by appropriately controlling the rate of CdCl2 addition. The high-temperature distillation tests were carried out at 1473 K with pressure of [approximately]300 Pa to remove the solvent accompanying the anode residue. The chloride content in the anode residue was lowered to 1% to 2.5% by the distillation operation. Although the anode residue was heated to 1673 to 1773 K at a pressure of [approximately]50 kPa after the distillation, it was not melted completely. The remaining ratio of uranium after the electrorefining and the above treatment process was evaluated to be 0.04% to 0.20%. Material flow calculations were performed for a pyrometallurgical reprocessing facility equipped with the anode residue treatment process. It showed that (a) the chlorine and uranium supply/demand balance is maintained unless the remaining ratio of uranium after electrorefining exceeds a certain value and (b) the addition of the anode residue treatment process does not have an adverse effect on either the performance of the overall process or the facility design.