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Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
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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.
Jericho W. Locke, Bhavya Lal
Nuclear Technology | Volume 206 | Number 8 | August 2020 | Pages 1109-1119
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2019.1680080
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Since the 1950s, the U.S. government has developed and launched a number of space-based nuclear systems based on both decay of radioisotopes and fission. While private entities have supported the development and launch of nuclear payloads as contractors, the federal government funded and drove the development and operation of such systems. In recent years, the private sector has developed interest in leading the development, launch, and use of nuclear technologies for space applications. This growth mirrors similar trends toward commercialization in the space sector as a whole. This paper investigates that private sector interest in space nuclear systems based on interviews with over a dozen companies in the space and nuclear industries. It presents a definition of commercial space activities, develops a model for the commercial use of space nuclear systems, and explores the status of commercial space nuclear activities in the United States. Our research finds that private sector capabilities in developing, testing, and operating space nuclear systems are growing but require the development of advanced nuclear technology, growth and diversification of the space economy, and government regulatory action.