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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!
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Latest News
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.
Kazuya Ohgama, Hiroki Katagiri, Atsushi Takegoshi, Taira Hazama
Nuclear Technology | Volume 207 | Number 12 | December 2021 | Pages 1810-1820
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2020.1846481
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In the prototype fast breeder reactor Monju, fixed absorber worth was measured as the difference of core reactivity measured by control rod worth between cores with and without a single fixed absorber or three fixed absorbers. In this paper, the measurements are evaluated in detail, and their reliability and usefulness as validation data are investigated through a comparison with calculations using the latest neutronics design methodology developed at Japan Atomic Energy Agency. Calculated-to-experiment values and their uncertainties of fixed absorber worth were 1.00 ± 0.05 and 1.02 ± 0.04, respectively. Through this study, the measurements and calculations were found consistent and reliable.
