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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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2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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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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Glass strategy: Hanford’s enhanced waste glass program
The mission of the Department of Energy’s Office of River Protection (ORP) is to complete the safe cleanup of waste resulting from decades of nuclear weapons development. One of the most technologically challenging responsibilities is the safe disposition of approximately 56 million gallons of radioactive waste historically stored in 177 tanks at the Hanford Site in Washington state.
ORP has a clear incentive to reduce the overall mission duration and cost. One pathway is to develop and deploy innovative technical solutions that can advance baseline flow sheets toward higher efficiency operations while reducing identified risks without compromising safety. Vitrification is the baseline process that will convert both high-level and low-level radioactive waste at Hanford into a stable glass waste form for long-term storage and disposal.
Although vitrification is a mature technology, there are key areas where technology can further reduce operational risks, advance baseline processes to maximize waste throughput, and provide the underpinning to enhance operational flexibility; all steps in reducing mission duration and cost.
Riyadh M. Motny, Supathorn Phongikaroon
Nuclear Technology | Volume 205 | Number 5 | May 2019 | Pages 671-683
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2018.1510698
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This study was conducted to explore the feasibility of rapid setting cement (RSC) as an agent of immobilization for certain elements such as fission products or radioactive materials through evaluation of the setting time, apparent porosity, bulk density, pH value, conductivity, compressive strength, and compositions. Two different cylindrical sample groups were created. The first group was a mixture of the cement powder with deionized water (DIW) and different concentrations of Ce (0, 2, 5, 7.5, and 10 wt%). The second group included the cement powder, artificial seawater (ASW), and same Ce concentration patterns. Samples were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), fluorescence analysis (XRF), and scanning electron microscopy including energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The results showed that the final setting time and compressive strength of RSC with both solutions (DIW and ASW) decreased as Ce content increased while opposite trends were observed for the apparent porosity and bulk density of RSC under the same concentration effect. As salt contents increased, the pH decreased while the conductivity increased gradually. The XRD patterns revealed that two newly identified phases were reported, namely CeAl11O18 and Ce4.667 (SiO4)3O. The XRF results showed uniform distribution of Ce concentrations within RSC with both solutions (DIW and ASW). The morphology of matrix samples showed that the existence of Ce distributed on the pore wall or clustered with Si, Al, Mg, K, P, Fe, and O.