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Division Spotlight
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
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
Commercial nuclear innovation "new space" age
In early 2006, a start-up company launched a small rocket from a tiny island in the Pacific. It exploded, showering the island with debris. A year later, a second launch attempt sent a rocket to space but failed to make orbit, burning up in the atmosphere. Another year brought a third attempt—and a third failure. The following month, in September 2008, the company used the last of its funds to launch a fourth rocket. It reached orbit, making history as the first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to do so.
Ernestas Narkunas, Arturas Smaizys, Povilas Poskas
Nuclear Technology | Volume 168 | Number 2 | November 2009 | Pages 533-536
Shielding | Special Issue on the 11th International Conference on Radiation Shielding and the 15th Topical Meeting of the Radiation Protection and Shielding Division (Part 2) / Decontamination/Decommissioning | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A9239
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
One of the two RBMK-1500 reactor units of the Ignalina nuclear power plant in Lithuania was shut down at the end of 2004 and is currently under decommissioning. The knowledge of radioactive inventory of irradiated materials is very important in the planning of the decommissioning activities and is essential for predicting the radiological impact to personnel during dismantling and management of these materials. The generated radionuclides and their radioactivities in the shield and support plates of the Ignalina Unit 1 RBMK-1500 reactor were modeled in this paper. The reactor shield and support plates, which are made of steel, become radioactive because of intensive neutron irradiation, as they are located close to the bottom and the top of the reactor active core.The assessment of radioactivity levels in shield and support plates was performed using the computer code ORIGEN-S. The list of radionuclides, their radioactivity levels, and the radioactivity dependence on the initial impurity content and cooling time were assessed in this paper. It was found that 3H, 14C, 36Cl, 55Fe, 60Co, 59Ni, and 63Ni are the main contributors to the radioactivity of the shield and support plates.