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Division Spotlight
Isotopes & Radiation
Members are devoted to applying nuclear science and engineering technologies involving isotopes, radiation applications, and associated equipment in scientific research, development, and industrial processes. Their interests lie primarily in education, industrial uses, biology, medicine, and health physics. Division committees include Analytical Applications of Isotopes and Radiation, Biology and Medicine, Radiation Applications, Radiation Sources and Detection, and Thermal Power Sources.
Meeting Spotlight
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.
David J. Kropaczek, Paul J. Turinsky
Nuclear Technology | Volume 95 | Number 1 | July 1991 | Pages 9-32
Technical Paper | Nuclear Fuel Cycle | doi.org/10.13182/NT95-1-9
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An in-core nuclear fuel management code for pressurized water reactor reload design has been developed that combines the stochastic optimization technique of simulated annealing with a computationally efficient core physics model based on second-order accurate generalized perturbation theory. The approach identifies the placements of feed fuel, exposed fuel with assembly orientations, and burnable poisons within the core lattice that optimize fuel cycle performance or thermal margin according to one of the following objectives: maximization of keff at a target end-of-cycle (EOC) burnup, minimization of the maximum radial power peaking over the cycle, or maximization of region average discharge burnup, and subject to constraints on radial power peaking, discharge burnup, and moderator temperature coefficient. Each objective examined for a typical cycle 2 reload indicated the existence of multiple optimal solutions. A comparison of the loading patterns obtained for the same fuel inventory shows that the marginal cost associated with achieving a 6.1% reduction in the maximum radial power peaking is equivalent to a 15.0% increase in fuel cycle costs for the specific core analyzed. Alternatively, an optimum loading pattern was found that increased the region average discharge burnup by 11.4% more than the one that maximizes the EOC keff, with the added expense of an increase in feed enrichment required to offset an otherwise 11.2% decrease in cycle length.