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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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U.S. nuclear supply chain: Ready for liftoff
Craig Piercycpiercy@ans.org
This month, September 8–11, the American Nuclear Society is teaming up with the Nuclear Energy Institute to host our first-ever Nuclear Energy Conference and Expo—NECX for short—in Atlanta. This new meeting combines ANS’s Utility Working Conference and NEI’s Nuclear Energy Assembly to form what NEI CEO Maria Korsnick and I hope will be the premier nuclear industry gathering in America.
We did this because after more than four decades of relative stagnation, the U.S. nuclear supply chain is finally entering a new era of dynamic growth. This resurgence is being driven by several powerful and increasingly durable forces: the explosive demand for electricity from artificial intelligence and data centers, an unprecedented wave of public and private acceptance of—and investment in—advanced nuclear technologies, and a strong market signal for reliable, on-demand power. Add the recent Trump administration executive orders on nuclear into the mix, and you have all the makings of an accelerant-rich business environment primed for rapid expansion.
Mark S. Jarzemba
Nuclear Technology | Volume 124 | Number 1 | October 1998 | Pages 82-87
Technical Paper | Reprocessing | doi.org/10.13182/NT98-A2910
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A method is described to estimate the heat generation rate of various high-level waste (HLW) forms composed primarily of either a sludge (with a composition similar to that in the Hanford HLW tanks) or borosilicate glass. The main heat source is from radioactive decay and subsequent self-absorption of particles emitted from 137Cs, 90Sr, or their radioactive daughters contained in the waste form. The heat generation rate of the waste form is usually an important parameter in safety and performance assessments and will likely be a part of the specifications required for the vitrified waste. The heat generation rate depends on the size of the waste because larger waste forms will tend to absorb a greater fraction of the gamma radiation from 137mBa decays (a short-lived radioactive daughter of 137Cs). Because beta radiation from these two nuclides is short ranged (only a few tenths of a millimetre in water), assumption of complete self-absorption of beta radiation is justifiable. Previous work in this area estimated upper and lower bounds for the volume-averaged heat generation rate per litre of waste based on total (i.e., large-sized waste forms) and zero (i.e., small-sized waste forms) self-absorption of gamma radiation emitted from 137mBa. This analysis extends the previous work to more adequately estimate the heat generation rate of intermediate-sized waste forms based on the composition of the waste (either borosilicate glass or a simulated sludge), and the size of the waste as characterized by the surface-area-to-volume ratio. The analyses are based on runs of the MCNP version 4A code.
