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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
2025 ANS Annual Conference
June 15–18, 2025
Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott Downtown
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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High-temperature plumbing and advanced reactors
The use of nuclear fission power and its role in impacting climate change is hotly debated. Fission advocates argue that short-term solutions would involve the rapid deployment of Gen III+ nuclear reactors, like Vogtle-3 and -4, while long-term climate change impact would rely on the creation and implementation of Gen IV reactors, “inherently safe” reactors that use passive laws of physics and chemistry rather than active controls such as valves and pumps to operate safely. While Gen IV reactors vary in many ways, one thing unites nearly all of them: the use of exotic, high-temperature coolants. These fluids, like molten salts and liquid metals, can enable reactor engineers to design much safer nuclear reactors—ultimately because the boiling point of each fluid is extremely high. Fluids that remain liquid over large temperature ranges can provide good heat transfer through many demanding conditions, all with minimal pressurization. Although the most apparent use for these fluids is advanced fission power, they have the potential to be applied to other power generation sources such as fusion, thermal storage, solar, or high-temperature process heat.1–3
Mellissa Komninakis, Joseph Sinicrope, James C. Nicholson, Philip Moore, Yolanda Rodriguez, Leonel Lagos, Daniela Radu
Nuclear Technology | Volume 211 | Number 3 | March 2025 | Pages 598-606
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2024.2345945
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Safety basis calculations support the safety considerations necessary for legacy nuclear facilities as they transition from active use, through limited operations and standby modes, until final disposition is achieved. Many of the calculations are governed heavily by the coefficients presented in DOE-HDBK-3010 in the form of airborne release of radioactive material resulting from penetration of the facility per seismic activity, full facility fires, and/or explosions. The main objective of this study is to validate the original data for airborne release fractions (ARFs) for powder contaminants under impact, as determined in DOE-HDBK-3010. The limited data available for impact experiments was generated at the Rocky Flats Plant in 1987, where the median ARFs for surrogate powder contamination were 4E-4 with a bounding value of 1E-2. However, estimating the level of uncertainty was challenging in the absence of multiple measurements conducted under identical test conditions. Moreover, the uncertainty was significantly increased due to the restricted range of the test conditions.
A more modern approach has been developed for the experimental design in this study, utilizing standardized techniques and analytical instruments. An impact apparatus was employed to be able deliver repeatable impact forces up to 369 kg·cm (320 in.·lb.). Cesium chloride was used as the surrogate powder contaminant in these experiments as it is extremely soluble in water and is even more so in the acidic media used to leach/dissolve the air filters for concentration analysis using mass spectrometry The developed approach leveraged multiple international standards and historical documents in an attempt to recreate a valid testing system that can be used for future analysis and to analyze mitigation factors such as contamination fixative technologies. The current ARFs were found to be consistent with the original values in DOE-HDBK-3010, 3.47E-4 and 4E-4, respectively.