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
Young Members Group
The Young Members Group works to encourage and enable all young professional members to be actively involved in the efforts and endeavors of the Society at all levels (Professional Divisions, ANS Governance, Local Sections, etc.) as they transition from the role of a student to the role of a professional. It sponsors non-technical workshops and meetings that provide professional development and networking opportunities for young professionals, collaborates with other Divisions and Groups in developing technical and non-technical content for topical and national meetings, encourages its members to participate in the activities of the Groups and Divisions that are closely related to their professional interests as well as in their local sections, introduces young members to the rules and governance structure of the Society, and nominates young professionals for awards and leadership opportunities available to members.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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
Apr 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
College students help develop waste-measuring device at Hanford
A partnership between Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) and Washington State University has resulted in the development of a device to measure radioactive and chemical tank waste at the Hanford Site. WRPS is the contractor at Hanford for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management.
Benoît Dessirier, Jerker Jarsjö, Andrew Frampton
Nuclear Technology | Volume 187 | Number 2 | August 2014 | Pages 147-157
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management and Disposal | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-77
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Deep geological repositories are generally considered as suitable environments for final disposal of spent nuclear fuel. In the Swedish and Finnish repository design concept, canisters are to be placed in deep underground tunnels in sparsely fractured crystalline bedrock, in deposition holes in which each canister is embedded with an expansive bentonite-clay-mixture buffer. A set of semigeneric two-dimensional radially symmetric TOUGH2 simulations are conducted to investigate the multiphase dynamics and interactions between water and air in a bentonite-rock environment. The main objective is to identify how sensitive saturation times of bentonite are to the geometry of the rock fractures and to commonly adopted simplifications in the unsaturated flow description such as Richards assumptions. Results show that the location of the intersection between the fracture system and the deposition hole is a key factor affecting saturation times. A potential long-lasting desaturation of the rock matrix close to the bentonite-rock interface is also identified extending up to 10 cm inside the rock. Two-phase-flow models predict systematically longer saturation times compared to a simplified Richards approximation, which is frequently used to represent unsaturated flows. The discrepancy diverges considerably as full saturation is approached.