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
Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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
Apr 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
College students help develop waste-measuring device at Hanford
A partnership between Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) and Washington State University has resulted in the development of a device to measure radioactive and chemical tank waste at the Hanford Site. WRPS is the contractor at Hanford for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management.
A. R. Massih
Nuclear Technology | Volume 205 | Number 7 | July 2019 | Pages 992-1001
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2019.1568102
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Oxidation of UO2 fuel under off-normal and normal reactor conditions occurs when fuel cladding fails, thereby allowing steam/water to enter the fuel rod. The steam/water will react with the fuel to produce UO2+x thus releasing hydrogen, with x standing for the amount of interstitial oxygen ions above the stoichiometric value.
In this technical note the impact of fuel oxidation on fission gas release (FGR) is modeled and discussed. The classical diffusion equation is used to describe migration and release of fission product gas (Xe) in UO2+x under time-varying postirradiation annealing conditions. We assume that the main quantity affected by fuel oxidation is the effective diffusivity of fission gas. Fuel oxidation enhances the diffusivity as a function of x in UO2+x in a parabolic fashion for 0.005 ≤ x ≤ 0.12 in the temperature range of 1000 ≤ T ≤ 1600 K. We first benchmark our model against an annealing test in which for x = 0.004 the Xe release fraction was measured as a function of time (temperature) during annealing. Furthermore, we apply the model to simulate a series of postirradiation annealing tests on UO2+x fuel, in which FGR fractions were measured for a given thermal ramp history in the range 0.00 ≤ x ≤ 0.66. The results of our computations in the range 0.004 ≤ x ≤ 0.20 show good agreement with measurements.