ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
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Division Spotlight
Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
Meeting Spotlight
Conference on Nuclear Training and Education: A Biennial International Forum (CONTE 2025)
February 3–6, 2025
Amelia Island, FL|Omni Amelia Island Resort
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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Christmas Night
Twas the night before Christmas when all through the houseNo electrons were flowing through even my mouse.
All devices were plugged in by the chimney with careWith the hope that St. Nikola Tesla would share.
G. R. Longhurst
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 14 | Number 2 | September 1988 | Pages 750-755
Tritium Properties and Interactions with Material | Proceedings of the Third Topical Meeting on Tritium Technology in Fission, Fusion and Isotopic Applications (Toronto, Ontario, Canada, May 1-6, 1988) | doi.org/10.13182/FST88-A25225
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Experiments were conducted on samples of depleted uranium and on intermetallic compounds of zirconium-cobalt and lanthanum-nickel-aluminide to evaluate the pyrophoricity of the activated materials and their hydrides and deuterides on exposure to air. None of the materials spontaneously ignited when exposed to room temperature air, but the uranium and the zirconium-cobalt both ignited in air at moderately elevated temperatures. Activated (dehydrided) materials ignited at essentially the same temperatures. Deuterides showed effectively the same characteristics as the hydrides except the ignition temperature of zirconium-cobalt deuteride was reduced by 20–50 K from that of the hydride. The pyrophoricity of these materials raises concern about the possibility of fires in tritium-storage beds with attendant damage to the bed and dispersal of tritiated debris, but fires may not occur until the bed is heated.