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Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
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2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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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
WIPP improves utility shaft safety, begins infrastructure project
Harrison Western Shaft Sinkers (HWSS), the company drilling a new utility shaft at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, has retained a safety culture expert following a near-miss accident in the shaft late last year. The safety expert will conduct monthly facilitated discussions with crews working on the shaft to reinforce expectations for identifying concerns regarding unsafe circumstances, according to a recent report by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB).
M. Gonzalez, L. Hansen, D. Rappleye, R. Cumberland, M. F. Simpson
Nuclear Technology | Volume 192 | Number 2 | November 2015 | Pages 165-171
Technical Paper | Reprocessing | doi.org/10.13182/NT15-28
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
It has previously been proposed by safeguards experts that curium will track plutonium through a spent fuel pyroprocessing facility, enabling nondestructive assaying of plutonium via counting neutron emissions from 244Cm. This is a critical assumption for the neutron balance approach to safeguards. If Cm and Pu were to behave chemically the same, counting neutrons could be used to estimate Pu concentrations. In this study, plutonium tracking with curium has been investigated using Enhanced REFIN with Anodic Dissolution (ERAD), a one-dimensional transient electrorefiner model based on fundamental electrochemical equations. The model was used to simulate simultaneous deposition of uranium, plutonium, and curium onto a solid metal cathode. Chemical/physical properties used by the model were either obtained from the literature or assumed. The standard exchange current density of curium was estimated by analyzing published cyclic voltammetry data for LiCl-KCl-CmCl3. The focus of the ERAD calculations was on verifying that Pu and Cm could codeposit onto the cathode along with U and to determine if the Pu/Cm ratio would be the same between the salt pool and cathode deposit. It was determined that Cm largely resists cathode deposition, while Pu can be driven to codeposit at sufficiently high current densities. The expected concentration of Cm in the salt would not support any deposition of Cm onto the cathode. It would need to be raised to ~1 wt% before small gram quantities of Cm will deposit onto the cathode. Even then, the Pu/Cm ratio of the cathode was found to be three orders of magnitude higher than the ratio in the salt. It is, thus, concluded that the neutron balance approach would be ineffective at safeguarding a nuclear fuel pyroprocessing facility.