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Division Spotlight
Education, Training & Workforce Development
The Education, Training & Workforce Development Division provides communication among the academic, industrial, and governmental communities through the exchange of views and information on matters related to education, training and workforce development in nuclear and radiological science, engineering, and technology. Industry leaders, education and training professionals, and interested students work together through Society-sponsored meetings and publications, to enrich their professional development, to educate the general public, and to advance nuclear and radiological science and engineering.
Meeting Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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Nuclear Technology
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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Take steps on SNF and HLW disposal
Matt Bowen
With a new administration and Congress, it is time once again to ponder what will happen—if anything—on U.S. spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste management policy over the next few years. One element of the forthcoming discussion seems clear: The executive and legislative branches are eager to talk about recycling commercial SNF. Whatever the merits of doing so, it does not obviate the need for one or more facilities for disposal of remaining long-lived radionuclides. For that reason, making progress on U.S. disposal capabilities remains urgent, lest the associated radionuclide inventories simply be left for future generations to deal with.
In March, Rick Perry, who was secretary of energy during President Trump’s first administration, observed that during his tenure at the Department of Energy it became clear to him that any plan to move SNF “required some practical consent of the receiving state and local community.”1
D. W. Kneff, Harry Farrar IV, F. M. Mann, R. E. Schenter
Nuclear Technology | Volume 49 | Number 3 | August 1980 | Pages 498-503
Technical Note | Material | doi.org/10.13182/NT80-A17698
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Fast-neutron-induced total helium production cross sections can be determined from a combination of spectrum-integrated measurements and theoretical calculations. The calculations provide information on the energy-dependent cross-section shape that is generally unavailable from the limited experimental data. The measurements in turn provide a normalization for the calculations. In the present work, total helium production cross sections for copper and aluminum bombarded with ∼14.8-MeV neutrons from the T(d,n) reaction have been measured by high-sensitivity gas mass spectrometry, and independently calculated using the Hauser-Feshbach statistical model. The experimental results are 51 ± 3 mb for copper and 143 ± 7 mb for aluminum, with corresponding values of 50 and 139 mb obtained from the theoretical calculations. The agreement demonstrates that this statistical model has the potential to predict total helium production cross sections for fusion energy neutrons. Comparison of the experimental results with published cross-section evaluations for the primary Cu(n, α) and Al(n,α) reactions gives significant ∼25- and ∼28-mb helium production contributions, respectively, from reaction channels other than (n, α).