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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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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ANS joins others in seeking to discuss SNF/HLW impasse
The American Nuclear Society joined seven other organizations to send a letter to Energy Secretary Christopher Wright on July 8, asking to meet with him to discuss “the restoration of a highly functioning program to meet DOE’s legal responsibility to manage and dispose of the nation’s commercial and legacy defense spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level radioactive waste (HLW).”
C. Ramesh, N. Murugesan, V. Ganesan, N. Sivai Bharasi, M. G. Pujar, U. Kamachi Mudali
Nuclear Technology | Volume 197 | Number 1 | January 2017 | Pages 99-109
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NT15-141
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) is nearing completion at Kalpakkam, India. Sodium is the heat transfer medium for PFBR, and austenitic steel SS 316LN is the material of construction for the sodium circuits of the reactor. During reactor service, the inner surfaces of the sodium circuit pipelines undergo corrosion by interacting with liquid sodium, forming ferritic layers. Radioactive nuclides formed by the activation of corrosion products are deposited on the ferritic surface, resulting in a radioactive burden on maintenance personnel. Chemical decontamination is generally carried out by dissolving the surface ferritic layer on the inside surface of the sodium circuit. In this context, a study of the dissolution behavior of the ferritic layer on SS 316LN samples formed by exposure to liquid sodium at 823 K was carried out by monitoring the H2 released during the chemical interaction with decontamination formulation. The decontamination chemical formulation was a mixture of sulfuric acid and phosphoric acid. This paper discusses the sample preparation, formation of the ferritic layer, and studies carried out on its dissolution behavior in decontamination formulation by monitoring the hydrogen released during the reaction using a proton exchange membrane–based hydrogen sensor.