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Division Spotlight
Radiation Protection & Shielding
The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
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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Apr 2024
Jan 2024
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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.
The Materials Science and Technology Graduate Scholarship was established by the MSTD in 1984 for graduate students pursuing studies in materials science and technology for nuclear applications.
In November 1993, the award was renamed the James F. Schumar Scholarship.
After receiving a bachelor’s degree in metallurgy from a predecessor of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, James Francis Schumar (1917-2002) began his career in 1940 as a chief metallurgist for Wolverine Tube Company. During World War II he was recruited for the Manhattan Project, and he developed procedures for cladding metallic uranium fuel rods with aluminum for the first plutonium production reactors at Hanford and for Chicago Pile 3. He joined Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) in 1946 as associate director of the metallurgy division and directed 50 staff metallurgists in developing materials and fabrication techniques for a variety of research reactors. During his tenure, he oversaw the first application of a uranium oxide fuel for generating civilian power, in the BORAX-4 and -5 reactors and the Experimental Boiling Water Reactor.
During his tenure as chair of the metallurgy department at Gulf General Atomic from 1960-62, he directed research on materials for gas-cooled reactors, which led to the manufacturing of fuel elements for the first civilian high-temperature gas-cooled reactor in the United States, Peach Bottom Station.
He returned to ANL in 1962, where he directed the development of tungsten-uranium oxide fuel elements, which were specified for the space propulsion program. He retired from ANL in 1984, as a senior scientist. Schumar was the first chair of the ANS Materials Science and Technology Division, which he helped organize. Schumar served on the board of the American Nuclear Society, was a fellow of the American Society of Metallurgy and published numerous papers and articles.
James Francis Schumar died of heart failure on July 30, 2002, at the age of 85.
Materials Science and Technology Division (MSTD)
A selection committee will be established by the Materials Science and Technology Division
Graduate (Masters or Ph.D.)
1 awarded annually @ $3,000/each
None
February 1
Last modified April 15, 2020, 8:50am CDT