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Division Spotlight
Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
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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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.
Yuji Fukaya, Shohei Ueta, Tomohiko Yamamoto, Yoshitaka Chikazawa, Xing L. Yan
Nuclear Technology | Volume 208 | Number 2 | February 2022 | Pages 335-346
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2021.1901001
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
When total volume control is applied to toxicity in nuclear waste management it becomes a limiting factor for the permittable total operating capacity of nuclear reactors. An alternative conceptual scenario is proposed, aimed at toxicity reduction through partitioning and transmutation. Specifically, the electricity generation capacity could be increased by transmutation of 90Sr and 137Cs. Simultaneously, the cooling time before disposal is reduced to 50 years from the 300 years required by existing scenarios, such as the accelerator-driven system. Finally, the scenario is also found to be feasible in terms of energy balance and cost, using an Li(d,xn) reaction neutron source with a deuteron accelerator for transmutation.