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Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
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2025 ANS Annual Conference
June 15–18, 2025
Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott 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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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.
Andreas Pritzker, Jrg Gassmann
Nuclear Technology | Volume 48 | Number 3 | May 1980 | Pages 289-297
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste | doi.org/10.13182/NT80-A32475
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A method has been developed that is based on simplified reliability models and that allows us to estimate the risk of nuclide release from underground nuclear waste repositories. The prototype repository is treated as a combination of geological and man-made barriers. Risk depends on time and is expressed as failure probability of the barrier system for all possible initiating events, multiplied by the inventory to be released. The results include, for each nuclide, the time and amount of the maximum probable discharge rate, which can be used in a biosphere transport model. They also illustrate the effectiveness of single barriers in the barrier system, and therefore allow a preselection among alternative barrier concepts, barrier qualities, and repository sites. The probabilistic failure models for the single barriers and the entire barrier system depend on only a few parameters; therefore, the application of the method is fast and inexpensive. It has to be stressed, however, that this simple method cannot replace more detailed and sophisticated risk studies, but allows concentrating them on preselected repository concepts. It therefore represents a useful tool in the early design and site evaluation phase for all kinds of repositories and waste types. Its usefulness has been demonstrated by performing several case studies with the computer program WRISK on some typical nuclides in high level waste, bearing in mind that for a repository concept all nuclides of possible importance should be considered.