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Radiation Protection & Shielding
The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
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2025 ANS Annual Conference
June 15–18, 2025
Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott Downtown
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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 announces 2025 Presidential Citations
One of the privileges of being president of the American Nuclear Society is awarding Presidential Citations to individuals who have demonstrated outstanding effort in some manner for the benefit of ANS or the nuclear community at large. Citations are conferred twice each year, at the Annual and Winter Meetings.
ANS President Lisa Marshall has named this season’s recipients, who will receive recognition at the upcoming Annual Conference in Chicago during the Special Session on Tuesday, June 17.
Christopher Matthews, Cetin Unal, Jack Galloway, Dennis D. Keiser, Jr., Steven L. Hayes
Nuclear Technology | Volume 198 | Number 3 | June 2017 | Pages 231-259
Critical Review | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2017.1323535
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Fuel-cladding chemical interaction (FCCI) is a phenomenon that occurs at the fuel-cladding interface during the irradiation of U-Zr and U-Pu-Zr metallic nuclear fuel and stainless steel cladding. The inter-diffusion zone that develops places both the fuel and cladding at risk through the reduction in cladding strength and the formation of a (U,Pu)/Fe eutectic in the fuel. Due to the impact FCCI has on limiting fuel pin burnup, there is a need for better understanding of the governing FCCI mechanisms in order to make accurate predictions using fuel-performance codes. By performing a critical review of previous work, the physics of FCCI can be separated into individual phenomena so that targeted models can be developed for each. Through examination of experiments conducted both in- and out-of-reactor, the behavior of lanthanides provides a natural separation of models by tracking their behavior through (1) production and transport in the fuel to the clad, (2) interaction with macroscopic changes in fuel topography including cracking and swelling, and finally (3) inter-diffusion at the fuel-cladding interface. Informed by past experience, phenomenological models can be built for each separate effect and subsequently combined in an integral fuel-performance simulation. Prototypical simulation approaches at each level have been included, as well as suggestions for several experiments to help bolster the understanding of irradiated fuel. A robust and predictive FCCI model will provide fuel-performance codes with the ability to predict clad failure and/or fuel eutectic melting. Armed with this information, advanced concepts such as palladium doped fuel, ODS steels, or mitigating reactor designs may be able to reduce FCCI enough to extend fuel burnup beyond its current limits, potentially boosting safety margins and reducing cost through higher fuel utilization.