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Division Spotlight
Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
Meeting Spotlight
Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
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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Nuclear Science and Engineering
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August 2024
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Taking shape: Fusion energy ecosystems built with public-private partnerships
It’s possible to describe fusion in simple terms: heat and squeeze small atoms to get abundant clean energy. But there’s nothing simple about getting fusion ready for the grid.
Private developers, national lab and university researchers, suppliers, and end users working toward that goal are developing a range of complex technologies to reach fusion temperatures and pressures, confounded by science and technology gaps linked to plasma behavior; materials, diagnostics, and electronics for extreme environments; fuel cycle sustainability; and economics.
R. A. Pierce, L. C. Olson, H. M Ajo
Nuclear Technology | Volume 208 | Number 7 | July 2022 | Pages 1149-1164
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2021.2004871
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Savannah River National Laboratory has evaluated several options for the disposition of stainless steel (SS)–clad plutonium metal alloy. One of the technologies under consideration is alloying of the material with SS. The resulting SS-Pu alloy would be a nonproliferable waste form consisting of a secondary Pu composition region microencapsulated in the refractory SS. Two 8-kg ingots were made at SS-1.8Zr-0.4Pu alloys (in weight percent); 8 kg was determined in a previous study to be the maximum mass of SS ingot at the maximum target Pu loading of 350 g that would result in a SS-4.4Pu alloy (in weight percent). Two smaller 500-g ingots were also produced at SS-1.6Zr-1.4Pu and SS-1.4Pu (in weight percent). The alloying of 500-g ingots at a higher Pu concentration than in the 8-kg ingots was evaluated, and the necessity of adding Zr metal to incorporate the Pu and control Pu oxidation was evaluated. Zirconium addition was found to be unnecessary to incorporate the Pu and control Pu oxidation. Drill turnings were collected from the large and small ingots, and metallographic samples were directly cut from the small ingots. Both were analyzed to validate the structure and composition region formation. Chemical analyses of turnings proved that the Pu was dispersed within the SS ingots.