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Decommissioning & Environmental Sciences
The mission of the Decommissioning and Environmental Sciences (DES) Division is to promote the development and use of those skills and technologies associated with the use of nuclear energy and the optimal management and stewardship of the environment, sustainable development, decommissioning, remediation, reutilization, and long-term surveillance and maintenance of nuclear-related installations, and sites. The target audience for this effort is the membership of the Division, the Society, and the public at large.
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2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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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
Fusion Energy Week begins today
Fusion is riding a surge of attention that began in December 2022 when researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility achieved fusion ignition. The organizers of Fusion Energy Week—a group called the U.S. Fusion Outreach Team—on the other hand, trace fusion development back 100 years to the doctoral research of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, who discovered that stars, including our Sun, are mostly made of hydrogen and helium, which in turn led to the understanding that those elements are the “fuel” of potential fusion energy systems on Earth. In recognition of Payne-Gaposchkin’s birthday—May 10—the U.S. Fusion Outreach Team plans to hold a “grassroots celebration of fusion energy” May 6–10, 2024, and annually during the second week of May.
Hidehito Kinjo, Takeshi Kageyama, Akihiro Kitano, Shin Usami
Nuclear Technology | Volume 167 | Number 2 | August 2009 | Pages 254-267
Technical Paper | Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A8962
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A conceptual design study has been performed on upgrading the core performance of the Japanese fast breeder reactor (FBR) Monju. The main aim of this study is to investigate and demonstrate the feasibility of an upgraded core with an extended refueling interval of 365 equivalent full-power days and increased average fuel burnup of 150 GWd/t, which are expected in future commercial FBRs.Two main design measures have been taken to accommodate the largely increased burnup reactivity loss and the reactivity control characteristics for the 1-yr cycle operation: (a) A modified fuel pin specification with increased pin diameter, pellet density, and fissile height has been chosen to improve the burnup reactivity loss per extended cycle, and (b) the control rod specification has been modified to enhance the reactivity worth by increasing the 10B content to ensure sufficient shutdown margin.The major core characteristics that have been evaluated are the core power distribution, safety-related reactivities such as Doppler and sodium void effect, thermal hydraulics, and reactivity control characteristics. The results show that even a medium-sized upgraded core with a volume of [approximately]2.5 m3 could achieve the primary targeted performance of 1-yr cycle operation, without causing significant drawbacks to the core characteristics and safety aspects. The feasibility of the upgraded core concept has thus been demonstrated.