ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Division Spotlight
Radiation Protection & Shielding
The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Jun 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
July 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
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.
Jorge Molinero-Huguet, F. Javier Samper-Calvete, Guoxiang Zhang, Changbing Yang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 148 | Number 2 | November 2004 | Pages 151-165
Technical Paper | High-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal | doi.org/10.13182/NT04-A3555
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Underground facilities are being operated by several countries around the world for performing research and demonstration of the safety of deep radioactive waste repositories. The Äspö Hard Rock Laboratory is one such facility launched and operated by the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company where various in situ experiments have been performed in fractured granites. One such experiment is the redox zone experiment, which aimed at evaluating the effects of the construction of an access tunnel on the hydrochemical conditions of a fracture zone. Dilution of the initially saline groundwater by fresh recharge water is the dominant process controlling the hydrochemical evolution of most chemical species, except for bicarbonate and sulfate, which unexpectedly increase with time. We present a numerical model of water flow, reactive transport, and microbial processes for the redox zone experiment. This model provides a plausible quantitatively based explanation for the unexpected evolution of bicarbonate and sulfate, reproduces the breakthrough curves of other reactive species, and is consistent with previous hydrogeological and solute transport models.