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Division Spotlight
Thermal Hydraulics
The division provides a forum for focused technical dialogue on thermal hydraulic technology in the nuclear industry. Specifically, this will include heat transfer and fluid mechanics involved in the utilization of nuclear energy. It is intended to attract the highest quality of theoretical and experimental work to ANS, including research on basic phenomena and application to nuclear system design.
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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Glass strategy: Hanford’s enhanced waste glass program
The mission of the Department of Energy’s Office of River Protection (ORP) is to complete the safe cleanup of waste resulting from decades of nuclear weapons development. One of the most technologically challenging responsibilities is the safe disposition of approximately 56 million gallons of radioactive waste historically stored in 177 tanks at the Hanford Site in Washington state.
ORP has a clear incentive to reduce the overall mission duration and cost. One pathway is to develop and deploy innovative technical solutions that can advance baseline flow sheets toward higher efficiency operations while reducing identified risks without compromising safety. Vitrification is the baseline process that will convert both high-level and low-level radioactive waste at Hanford into a stable glass waste form for long-term storage and disposal.
Although vitrification is a mature technology, there are key areas where technology can further reduce operational risks, advance baseline processes to maximize waste throughput, and provide the underpinning to enhance operational flexibility; all steps in reducing mission duration and cost.
Tobias Lindborg (SKB/Swedish Univ of Agricultural Sciences), Graham Smith (GMS Abingdon Ltd.), Mike Thorne (Mike Thorne and Assoc Ltd)
Proceedings | 16th International High-Level Radioactive Waste Management Conference (IHLRWM 2017) | Charlotte, NC, April 9-13, 2017 | Pages 105-112
Environmental change in post-closure safety assessment for radioactive waste disposal is recognised as an issue in international recommendations, national regulatory requirements and safety assessment practice. The key drivers of environmental change are associated with climate change. The major implications for post-closure safety relate to consequent changes in hydrology and landscape, in turn having knock-on implications for model representation of the containment system and the biosphere, as well as radionuclide migration and accumulation within them. This paper presents work recently completed in working group 6 of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s MODARIA program, which focussed on “Development of a Common Framework for Addressing Climate Change in Post-Closure Radiological Assessment of Solid Waste Disposal”. The results include an overall methodology for taking climate change and landscape development into account in post-closure radiological impact assessments. It is intended to be applicable to a wide range of disposal facility types and provide a common, scientifically supported, basis for addressing these complex issues in assessments. The methodology is illustrated by a range of examples from on-going work at the national or project specific level, that indicate how the common approach can be applied to address locally relevant assessment specific contextual factors. Continuing activities in carrying the results forward are also briefly presented. These include the update of the reference biospheres methodology within the international BIOPROTA program and the trial application of the approach to further sites and facilities. The implications for long-term assessment of sites under long-term rehabilitation are also discussed