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
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
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
May 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
U.S. nuclear capacity factors: Ideal for data centers?
Baseload nuclear generation doesn’t get the respect it deserves, if you ask nuclear operators. But the hyperscale data centers that process our digital lives—like the one right next to the Susquehanna plant in northeastern Pennsylvania—are pushing electricity demand up. Clean, reliable capacity now looks a lot more valuable.
G. R. Longhurst, G. A. Deis, P. Y. Hsu, L. G. Miller, R. A. Causey
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 4 | Number 2 | September 1983 | Pages 681-686
Tritium | doi.org/10.13182/FST83-A22938
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Experimental evidence collected by several researchers suggests that gamma radiation may enhance the release of tritium from structural materials in fusion reactors. If so, this may reduce inventories and, in first walls, it may reduce permeation rates. The release process is not well understood, but it appears to involve Compton scattering of photons by electrons of the host material. The excited electrons then interact with binding potential fields to effect the release of bound tritium atoms. This process seems to be fairly efficient in nonmetals where it may result in enhanced diffusion, but it should be less important than thermal processes in metals. Experiments were conducted in the gamma irradiation facility of the Advanced Test Reactor at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory to determine whether gamma radiation has an appreciable effect on the normal permeation of tritium through stainless steel. Low concentrations of HT were allowed to diffuse through a 0.071-cm-thick tube of 316 stainless steel, heated between 590 and 733 K. Gamma irradiation intensities were varied from 1.3 to 155 C/kgh (5 × 103 to 6 × 105 R/h). Ion chamber detectors were used to measure tritium concentrations on both sides of the tube. It was found that in the presence of excess H2, the higher gamma irradiation intensity exhibited slightly higher permeation rates of tritium. When the walls of the permeation tube and the HT were highly oxidized, the permeation rates were much more scattered, and the gamma irradiation seemed to have no observable effect. It was concluded that the effect of gamma radiation on tritium permeation through stainless steel in a fusion reactor environment should be small. However, the relative ease with which tritium from HTO was seen to permeate the material raises questions regarding tritium management in breeder blankets.