ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
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
2022 ANS Annual Meeting
June 12–16, 2022
Anaheim, CA|Anaheim Hilton
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
May 2022
Jan 2022
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2022
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
What are the key cost drivers for microreactors?
Microreactors upend the traditional economics of nuclear power plants by shifting the paradigm from economies of scale (large reactors) to economies of multiple (mass production). While shrinking power output per unit may increase costs per kilowatt compared to large plants, offsetting gains can be expected from simplified and standardized designs, factory fabrication, inherent safety, lower radionuclide inventories, fast installation, and low financing costs. For instance, the lower power density in a microreactor core leads to a greatly reduced decay heat source, simplifying emergency cooling needs. These design aspects can lead to innovations including substantial simplifications to safety and control needs, minimized human operational requirements, a very compact balance of plant, the ability to fabricate almost every component in a factory, shortened construction time, and less daunting financing.
Won-Jin Cho, Changsoo Lee, Geon Young Kim
Nuclear Technology | Volume 200 | Number 3 | December 2017 | Pages 225-240
Technical Paper | dx.doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2017.1369804
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
For a spent fuel repository, the possible application of the concepts of a multilayer repository with a two- or three-story disposal tunnel and a multicanister repository in which two or three canisters are emplaced in a deposition hole is assessed from the viewpoint of temperature, mechanical stability, and nuclear criticality. The results show that the concepts of multilayer and multicanister repositories are applicable to the geological repository without deterioration of the mechanical stability and nuclear criticality safety. Their adoption in the spent fuel repository can improve the disposal density up to 200% to 400% depending on the applied peak temperature limit under the given thermal constraint and site conditions.
