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Division Spotlight
Accelerator Applications
The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
Meeting Spotlight
2027 ANS Winter Conference and Expo
October 31–November 4, 2027
Washington, DC|The Westin Washington, DC 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
Supreme Court rules against Texas in interim storage case
The Supreme Court voted 6–3 against Texas and a group of landowners today in a case involving the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s licensing of a consolidated interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel, reversing a decision by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to grant the state and landowners Fasken Land and Minerals (Fasken) standing to challenge the license.
E. Robert Gilbert, Wendell J. Bailey, A. Burtron Johnson, Jr., Mikal A. McKinnon
Nuclear Technology | Volume 89 | Number 2 | February 1990 | Pages 141-161
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle | doi.org/10.13182/NT90-A34342
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
By 2003, the year the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) currently predicts that a repository will be available, 58 U.S. commercial nuclear power plant units are expected to run out of wet storage space for light water reactor (LWR) spent fuel. To alleviate this problem, utilities have implemented advanced storage methods that have increased storage capacity as well as reduced the rate of spent-fuel generation. These methods include (a) transshipping spent-fuel assemblies between pools within the same utility system, (b) reracking pools to accommodate additional spent-fuel assemblies, (c) taking credit for fuel burnup in pool storage rack designs, (d) extending fuel burnup, (e) rod consolidation, and (f) dry storage, Wet storage continues to be the predominant U.S. spent-fuel management technology, but as a measure to enhance at-reactor storage capacity, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 authorized DOE to assist utilities with licensing at-reactor dry storage. Information exchanges with other nations, laboratory testing and modeling, and cask tests cooperatively funded by U.S. utilities and DOE produced a strong technical basis for confidence that LWR spent fuel can be stored safely for several decades in both wet and dry storage. Licensed dry storage of spent fuel in an inert atmosphere was first achieved in the United States in 1986. Studies are under way in several countries to determine acceptable conditions for storing LWR spent fuel in air. Rod consolidation technology is being developed and demonstrated to enhance the storage capacity for both wet and dry storage. Large-scale commercial implementation is awaiting optimization of practical and economical mechanical systems.
