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The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
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2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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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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Proving DRACO will deliver
The United States is now closer than it has been in over five decades to launching the first nuclear thermal rocket into space, thanks to DRACO—the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Orbit.
Bernard L. Cohen
Nuclear Technology | Volume 70 | Number 3 | September 1985 | Pages 433-440
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT85-A15969
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The 1983 report of the Waste Isolation Systems Panel of the National Academy of Sciences (referred to as NAS-83) introduces a solubility limited dissolution (SLD) theory to estimate release rates from highlevel radioactive waste packages. It is pointed out that this theory, as presented, should apply equally well to each grain of average rock, but that when applied to that problem, it overpredicts the observed dissolution rate of SiO2 by seven orders of magnitude. The SLD theory also predicts that cesium and other trace elements are leached out of rock grains orders of magnitude more rapidly than the SiO2; it is shown that this is clearly contrary to the experimentally observed situation. Other shortcomings of the NAS-83 treatment are pointed out. Modifications to the theory that avoid these large discrepancies are suggested; when applied to the waste problem, they pose some very important questions that should be answered before proceeding with waste management problems. For example, they suggest that reprocessing may reduce the hazards from waste by a factor of 10 million, and that synroc may be millions of times more secure against leaching than waste glass.