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Division Spotlight
Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy
The mission of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy Division (NNPD) is to promote the peaceful use of nuclear technology while simultaneously preventing the diversion and misuse of nuclear material and technology through appropriate safeguards and security, and promotion of nuclear nonproliferation policies. To achieve this mission, the objectives of the NNPD are to: Promote policy that discourages the proliferation of nuclear technology and material to inappropriate entities. Provide information to ANS members, the technical community at large, opinion leaders, and decision makers to improve their understanding of nuclear nonproliferation issues. Become a recognized technical resource on nuclear nonproliferation, safeguards, and security issues. Serve as the integration and coordination body for nuclear nonproliferation activities for the ANS. Work cooperatively with other ANS divisions to achieve these objective nonproliferation policies.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
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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Argonne’s METL gears up to test more sodium fast reactor components
Argonne National Laboratory has successfully swapped out an aging cold trap in the sodium test loop called METL (Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop), the Department of Energy announced April 23. The upgrade is the first of its kind in the United States in more than 30 years, according to the DOE, and will help test components and operations for the sodium-cooled fast reactors being developed now.
Edward J. Bouwer, John W. McKlveen, W. J. McDowell
Nuclear Technology | Volume 42 | Number 1 | January 1979 | Pages 102-111
Technical Paper | Analysis | doi.org/10.13182/NT79-A32166
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A method utilizing solvent extraction coupled with liquid scintillation spectrometry has been developed for the assay of uranium and thorium in fertilizers and phosphate-containing minerals and chemicals. Trioctylphosphine oxide in toluene is used to extract uranium and thorium from a perchloric and nitric acid solution, with phosphate interference being suppressed by the addition of aluminum ion. The uranium and thorium are stripped from this solution, and uranium is separated from the thorium by selective reextraction of uranium into a scintillator with Adogen 364 (tertiary amine) sulfate. The thorium remaining in the aqueous is reextracted into another scintillator with (primary) 1-nonyldecylamine sulfate. Both nuclides are counted separately in a high-resolution liquid scintillation spectrometer. The sensitivity of the counting method is enhanced by the use of pulse-shape rejection of the beta-gamma background. Results indicate a detection threshold of 0.0038 pCi of uranium (1.1 part/108) with a 1000-min counting time. Reproducibility of ±2.5% was found at the 50-ppm level. For thorium detection, thresholds are 4 part/1013 for the same counting time with ±3.0% average recovery of 230Th and 7 part/108 of 232Th.