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Division Spotlight
Education, Training & Workforce Development
The Education, Training & Workforce Development Division provides communication among the academic, industrial, and governmental communities through the exchange of views and information on matters related to education, training and workforce development in nuclear and radiological science, engineering, and technology. Industry leaders, education and training professionals, and interested students work together through Society-sponsored meetings and publications, to enrich their professional development, to educate the general public, and to advance nuclear and radiological science and engineering.
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.
Fu-Long Chen, Shih-Hai Li, Ge-Ping Yu
Nuclear Technology | Volume 95 | Number 1 | July 1991 | Pages 54-63
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT91-A34567
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
For the final disposal of high-level waste (HLW), the possibility of a repository sited below the fresh/saline groundwater interface within islet rock formations is analyzed. Because of their relatively stable tectonics, the offshore islets of some countries (such as those of Taiwan) are worthy. of being considered as potential repository sites. Before the emplacement of radwastes in such a repository, however, the mass exchange across the fresh/saline groundwater interface must be limited and the horizontal movement of advective saline ground-water must be extremely low. Theoretical equations for the location and shape of the interface are derived. When radwastes are buried in rock formations, the temperature effect of the decay heat could cause buoyant convection flow of saline groundwater upward across the groundwater interface. This could carry released radionuclides across the groundwater interface to upper formation layers where fresh groundwater flows. The radionuclides could then be carried by the fresh groundwater to the sea. Although basic HLW repository designs should eliminate the significance of this temperature effect, it is incorporated into this preliminary analysis for the purpose of conservative estimations. Radionuclide transport behavior in an islet site is compared to that in an inland site in which a repository would be built in partially saturated fractured media. The total effects of radionuclide transport for the islet site is similar to that for the inland site. Although the lack of information limits more detailed, quantitative predictions, the possibility of islet disposal sites for HLW is worthy of notice, and more research efforts toward investigation of islet sites are warranted.