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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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New coolants, new fuels: A new generation of university reactors
Here’s an easy way to make aging U.S. power reactors look relatively youthful: Compare them (average age: 43) with the nation’s university research reactors. The 25 operating today have been licensed for an average of about 58 years.
Abiodun Adeniyi, Bret van den Akker (ORNL), Halim Alsaed (Enviro Nuclear Services), Jim Blink (Beckman & Assoc), Joe Carter, Tom Severynse, Bob Jones (SRNL)
Proceedings | 16th International High-Level Radioactive Waste Management Conference (IHLRWM 2017) | Charlotte, NC, April 9-13, 2017 | Pages 395-401
Spent nuclear fuel (SNF) assemblies are stored in pools or dry casks at commercial reactor sites awaiting transfer to an interim storage facility (ISF) or a geologic repository for disposal. To meet acceptance criteria for repository waste package loading, fuel in dry storage may require repackaging into smaller canisters. A modular packaging facility design has been developed to receive and package 1,500 metric tons of uranium (MTU) of fuel annually. This fuel may arrive in welded canisters previously stored at reactor sites or in bolted lid bare fuel transportation casks (TCs) that would typically be shipped directly from spent fuel pools at reactor sites. Three outgoing sizes of storage, transportation, aging, and disposal (STAD) canisters were evaluated against 8 possible inflows of SNF canisters and casks to determine the effect on facility throughput. Cost estimates have been developed for the packaging facility, and operating costs have been determined for packaging 1,500 MTU of SNF per year. Transfer of SNF from (TCs) or dual-purpose canisters (DPCs) would be performed in a dry hot cell environment. When compared to a wet packaging method, a dry packaging method could improve throughput by eliminating the need for quenching the fuel prior to immersion in the pool, and the time required for drying canisters in preparation for shipment. The dry packaging process could also reduce the contamination levels on the outer surface of the transfer cask for DPC system or the outer surface of the TC depending on the scenario, resulting in lower personnel exposure and reduced waste treatment costs for cask decontamination.