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Isotopes & Radiation
Members are devoted to applying nuclear science and engineering technologies involving isotopes, radiation applications, and associated equipment in scientific research, development, and industrial processes. Their interests lie primarily in education, industrial uses, biology, medicine, and health physics. Division committees include Analytical Applications of Isotopes and Radiation, Biology and Medicine, Radiation Applications, Radiation Sources and Detection, and Thermal Power Sources.
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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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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.
M. W. Patterson (INL), Kevin Terrill, Stephen Hancock, Joseph Warner (Univ of Idaho)
Proceedings | Advances in Thermal Hydraulics 2018 | Orlando, FL, November 11-15, 2018 | Pages 317-330
An evaluation of a fluted tube, counter-flow heat exchanger (HEX), designed and optimized for heat transfer from the primary loop of a fast chloride salt reactor to an intermediate loop, is presented. The fluted-tube HEX was optimized for volume and pressure drop by altering tube length, flute number and pitch, and tube diameter for multiple commercially available fluted tubes. Three compositions of molten NaCl-KCl-ZnCl2 salt are used in the analysis. A fluted tube HEX design and salt composition are recommended and the HEX performance and physical size are compared to a conventional tube and shell HEX designed with tubes of equivalent diameter and length. Design of a fluted tube HEX and salt composition have the potential to improve the performance of Molten Chloride Salt Fast Reactors (MCSFRs). The MCSFR referenced in this evaluation is being developed by Elysium Industries and is a leading candidate for commercial deployment.