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Division Spotlight
Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
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!
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Nuclear Science and Engineering
July 2025
Nuclear Technology
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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.
W. J. Penn, R. K. Lo, J. C. Wood
Nuclear Technology | Volume 34 | Number 2 | July 1977 | Pages 249-268
Technical Paper | Fuel | doi.org/10.13182/NT77-A39701
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Extensive fuel performance data obtained from Canadian Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) power reactors and experimental reactors are analyzed. Various modes of power ramping that cause fuel defects are identified, and fuel defect criteria are derived. The probability of a defect occurring in a power ramp is found to depend on the magnitude of the ramped power, the power increase, the fuel burnup, and the time fuel dwells at the ramped power. The fuel defect rate in CANDU power reactors based on the last 10 years of operation and due to all causes has been only 0.27%. The understanding gained through the development of the CANDU power ramp defect criteria has caused the defect rate to decrease progressively. Physical interpretations are offered in terms of mechanisms believed to account for power ramp defects. The dominant mechanism is considered to be stress corrosion cracking of the Zircaloy clad, induced by the release of such fission products as iodine from the fuel.
