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Division Spotlight
Accelerator Applications
The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
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
NRC updating GEIS rule for new nuclear technology
The Nuclear Regulatory Agency is issuing a proposed generic environmental impact statement (GEIS) for use in reviewing applications for new nuclear reactors.
In an April 17 memo, NRC secretary Carrie Safford wrote that the commission approved NRC staff’s recommendation to publish in the Federal Register a proposed rule amending 10 CFR Part 51, “Environmental Protection Regulations for Domestic Licensing and Related Regulatory Functions.”
Pavlo Ivanusa, Philip Jensen, Caitlin A. Condon, Amoret L. Bunn
Nuclear Technology | Volume 208 | Number 3 | March 2022 | Pages 575-585
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2021.1932174
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The SCALE code system was used to model, deplete, and compare several different tri-structural isotropic (TRISO)–fueled reactor designs: a helium-cooled prismatic reactor, a helium-cooled pebble-bed reactor (PBR), and a fluoride-lithium-beryllium (FLIBE) molten-salt-cooled PBR. The purpose of this comparison was to understand how differences in the reactor designs affect the radioactivity of the fuel after discharge and whether those differences are significant. First, the various reactor designs were built and depleted in the TRITON module for each design and fuel enrichment. Then, the TRITON outputs were used to create burnup-dependent reactor libraries. These libraries were then used by ORIGEN to determine the activities of discharged fuel for each reactor, which were compared to generic Westinghouse 17 × 17 fuel.
Overall, the results showed that short-term activities are dominated by reactors with higher operating powers, and the reactor type, initial fuel enrichment, and maximum burnup are of only secondary importance. Although this analysis only focuses on activities in Becquerels, these dependencies are consistent with the expected behavior of decay heat. However, analysis of long-term time periods post irradiation shows that the reactor type and maximum burnup have strong impacts on the activities; initial fuel enrichment has a secondary impact while operating power is inconsequential.
These results would be useful for analyses, such as dose assessment and modeling in postrelease scenarios, normal fuel handling operations, and spent fuel transport, storage, and disposal. Of particular interest, the results in this technical note show that analyses that focus on spent nuclear fuel of advanced reactors need to consider each parameter carefully. Unsurprisingly, if the correct operating power is not used in short-term analyses, the results will not be correct. Perhaps unexpectedly, however, if the correct reactor type is not used, then the long-term results will also be incorrect, especially for areas such as permanent disposal. Even though this technical note focuses on the total activity of nuclear fuel, it provides initial results on the effects of various input parameters and also provides a framework to extend the work into other analyses of spent fuel from advanced reactors, especially those employing TRISO fuel.