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The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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
V. A. Tzikanov, Yu. N. Aleksenko, V. D. Tetyukov, V. A. Kuprienko, I. G. Kobzar, V. A. Khramchenkov, M. P. Mexcheryakov, V. I. Zinoviev
Nuclear Technology | Volume 38 | Number 2 | April 1978 | Pages 187-191
Technical Paper | Low-Temperature Nuclear Heat / Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT78-A32011
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Radiolytic damage to the ditolylmethane organic coolant-moderator of the ARBUS reactor was removed by vacuum distillation. The majority of the ditolylmethane degraded formed gaseous and high-boiling materials, which were easily removed by the vacuum distillation. Unsaturated hydrocarbons and low-boiling residues were a minor contribution to the impurities produced by radiolysis in the primary coolant loop. Radioactivity in the primary coolant loop was found to be caused primarily from corrosion products of the system, 16N from dissolved oxygen, and impurities in the coolant-moderator. These also were significantly reduced in the vacuum distillation process.
