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.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
Latest Magazine Issues
Jun 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
July 2026
Nuclear Technology
June 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
May 2026
Latest News
North American construction is back—smaller and faster—at OPG’s Darlington
“The nuclear renaissance is real here,” said Ontario Power Generation’s Subo Sinnathamby on May 8, one year to the day after OPG secured a final investment decision to build the first of four planned BWRX-300 reactors at its Darlington nuclear power plant, and shortly after the new reactor’s foundation was lifted into place. “We got our license to construct in April and our [final investment decision] in May, and we’ve been off to the races since.”
Seok Yoon, Min-Jun Kim, Seung-Rae Lee, Geon-Young Kim
Nuclear Technology | Volume 204 | Number 2 | November 2018 | Pages 213-226
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2018.1471909
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A deep geological repository has been considered as one of the most appropriate options for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste (HLW), and it will be constructed in a host rock area at a depth of 500 to 1000 m below the ground surface. The geological repository system is based on the concept of an engineered barrier system, and it consists of a disposal canister with packed spent fuel, buffer material, backfill material, and intact rock. The buffer plays an important role to assure the disposal safety of HLW since it can restrain the release of radionuclides and protect the canister from the inflow of groundwater. Since an increased heat quantity is released from the disposal canister into the surrounding buffer material, the thermal conductivity of the buffer material constitutes a key parameter needed to analyze the entire disposal safety. Therefore, this study presents a thermal conductivity prediction model for compacted bentonite buffer material from Kyungju, which is the only bentonite produced in Korea. The thermal conductivity of the compacted bentonite buffer from Kyungju was measured using a hot-wire method according to varying degrees of saturation, dry density, and temperature. The measurements showed that the thermal conductivity was concurrently influenced by the degree of saturation, dry density, and temperature variation. A regression model was proposed to predict the thermal conductivity of the compacted bentonite buffer from Kyungju using the degree of saturation and the dry density as the dependent variables. An additional regression model was also introduced that incorporated the temperature variation as an additional dependent variable, and the two models were directly compared with each other.