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2025 ANS Annual Conference
June 15–18, 2025
Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott Downtown
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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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Smarter waste strategies: Helping deliver on the promise of advanced nuclear
At COP28, held in Dubai in 2023, a clear consensus emerged: Nuclear energy must be a cornerstone of the global clean energy transition. With electricity demand projected to soar as we decarbonize not just power but also industry, transport, and heat, the case for new nuclear is compelling. More than 20 countries committed to tripling global nuclear capacity by 2050. In the United States alone, the Department of Energy forecasts that the country’s current nuclear capacity could more than triple, adding 200 GW of new nuclear to the existing 95 GW by mid-century.
Mitsuo Manaka, Manabu Kawasaki, Akira Honda
Nuclear Technology | Volume 130 | Number 2 | May 2000 | Pages 206-217
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management and Disposal | doi.org/10.13182/NT00-A3088
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The redox condition of the near field is expected to affect the performance of engineered barrier systems. In particular, the oxygen initially existing in the pore spaces of compacted bentonites strongly affects the redox condition of the near field. To assess the influence of the oxygen, research was done to assess its transport parameters in the compacted bentonite and consumption process. To understand the diffusion of dissolved oxygen (DO) in compacted bentonite and to predict the effect of the DO, the measurements of the effective diffusion coefficient of DO in compacted sodium bentonite were made by electrochemistry. As a result, the following relationship between the dry density of compacted sodium bentonite and the effective diffusion coefficient of DO in compacted sodium bentonite was derived: De = 3.0 ± 0.5 × 10-9 exp(-3.7 ± 0.2 × 10-3), where De is the effective diffusion coefficient (m2 s-1) of DO in compacted sodium bentonite and is the dry density (kg m-3) of compacted sodium bentonite.The oxygen concentration in the bentonite is expected to be controlled by the oxidation of pyrite as an impurity in the bentonite. To investigate this idea, the rates of pyrite oxidation by DO in compacted sodium bentonite were estimated from the experimental data in pyrite-bentonite systems using the obtained effective diffusion coefficient of DO. The results show that the average of the rate constants of pyrite oxidation by DO in compacted sodium bentonite was 1.16 ± 0.35 × 10-8 m s-1, whereas the rate constant in a carbonate-buffered solution (pH = 9.24) was 1.46 ± 0.09 × 10-9 m s-1.