ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Division Spotlight
Materials Science & Technology
The objectives of MSTD are: promote the advancement of materials science in Nuclear Science Technology; support the multidisciplines which constitute it; encourage research by providing a forum for the presentation, exchange, and documentation of relevant information; promote the interaction and communication among its members; and recognize and reward its members for significant contributions to the field of materials science in nuclear technology.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Apr 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
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.
Dongjune Chang, Youho Lee (Univ of New Mexico)
Proceedings | Advances in Thermal Hydraulics 2018 | Orlando, FL, November 11-15, 2018 | Pages 343-354
The research for packed Pebble-bed for Fluoride salt-cooled high temperature reactor, with its advantages of passive safety feature and higher thermal efficiency compared to conventional nuclear power plants, is developing actively by many research institutes. In this study, the authors introduce a new device which has non-invasive type measurements in order to figure out the statistical distribution of temperature and heat transfer performance of randomly packed spherical fuels. This device is made up with a metallic shell of 63.5mm diameter, and it contains a circuit board and battery to drive temperature measurements, wireless data transfer. The circuit board used for receive measured temperature from several K type thermocouples is based on the ATmega328 type Microprocessor (MCU). This board collects temperature at multiple points and send data to the receiver in a wireless way. The authors descript its communication protocol and driving method of the device. After that, the development process for configuring new concept wireless device was explained. In addition, heat generation from the inside of the spherical device was realized by using induction heating and fabric-based heating material. Preliminary results from the experiment on the wireless communication of multiple devices are presented. The statistical distribution of the local heat transfer coefficient for multiple packed-pebbles can be obtained by extending this preliminary experimental method.