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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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Latest News
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.
R. L. Nelson, N. Parkinson, W. C. L. Kent
Nuclear Technology | Volume 53 | Number 2 | May 1981 | Pages 196-203
Technical Paper | Realistic Estimates of the Consequences of Nuclear Accident / Nuclear Fuel | doi.org/10.13182/NT81-A32624
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Future fabrication plants for breeder reactor fuel will have to be designed to more stringent personnel radiation exposure standards. Thus, it is desirable to move away from glove box operations toward fully remote operating and maintenance concepts. Experience with the manufacture of fuel for the prototype fast reactor demonstrated that processes requiring frequent and skilled adjustment are to be avoided and that the essential requirement for a remote fabrication route is that it be stable, tolerant, and readily meet product specifications. The equipment selected must be reliable and have low maintenance requirements. Maintenance is perceived as a crucial area, and concepts under consideration for future plants involve the remote removal, decontamination,and replacement of equipment modules or assemblies. A vibro-compaction technique for filling fuel pins, which consists of a single infiltration of a coarse bed of spheres with fine spheres, is considered to have high potential for upscale in a remote operation. The gel precipitation route to 800- and 80-nm spheres of (U,Pu)O2 has been shown to yield acceptable products for vibro-compaction of fuel elements to ∼80% smear density. This wet chemical route meets many of the criteria for future remote fabrication plants and a sequential development program toward a full-scale production plant is in hand.