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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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Glass strategy: Hanford’s enhanced waste glass program
The mission of the Department of Energy’s Office of River Protection (ORP) is to complete the safe cleanup of waste resulting from decades of nuclear weapons development. One of the most technologically challenging responsibilities is the safe disposition of approximately 56 million gallons of radioactive waste historically stored in 177 tanks at the Hanford Site in Washington state.
ORP has a clear incentive to reduce the overall mission duration and cost. One pathway is to develop and deploy innovative technical solutions that can advance baseline flow sheets toward higher efficiency operations while reducing identified risks without compromising safety. Vitrification is the baseline process that will convert both high-level and low-level radioactive waste at Hanford into a stable glass waste form for long-term storage and disposal.
Although vitrification is a mature technology, there are key areas where technology can further reduce operational risks, advance baseline processes to maximize waste throughput, and provide the underpinning to enhance operational flexibility; all steps in reducing mission duration and cost.
Jang-Guen Park, Sung-Hee Jung, Jong Bum Kim, Jinho Moon, Chan Hyeong Kim
Nuclear Technology | Volume 192 | Number 2 | November 2015 | Pages 133-141
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT15-16
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In industrial processes where multiphase flows are frequently encountered, it is important to examine the phase distribution and flow pattern to optimize process efficiency, safe operation, and cost savings. One of the most suitable techniques of industrial-process flow-dynamics visualization is the single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) system, which provides, by means of a process-system-injected radioisotope source, cross-sectional images of the process flow. Obtaining reliable SPECT imaging results for a multiphase flow system, however, remains a significant challenge. In the present study, the use of a diverging collimator for improvement of industrial SPECT system performance is proposed. The advantages of the diverging-collimation industrial SPECT system as compared with a previous parallel-collimation version can be summarized as follows: (a) significant reduction of edge artifacts on a detection-efficiency map, and 19% improvement of average detection efficiency; (b) 36% improvement of image resolution; (c) accurate source region reconstruction even with the source positioned farther from the object’s center; and (d) a reduced system size.