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Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Norway’s Halden reactor takes first step toward decommissioning
The government of Norway has granted the transfer of the Halden research reactor from the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) to the state agency Norwegian Nuclear Decommissioning (NND). The 25-MWt Halden boiling water reactor operated from 1958 to 2018 and was used in the research of nuclear fuel, reactor internals, plant procedures and monitoring, and human factors.
H. A. Boniface, N. V. Gnanapragasam, D. K. Ryland, S. Suppiah, A. Perevezentsev
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 71 | Number 3 | April 2017 | Pages 241-245
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1290970
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Water Detritiation System (WDS) designed for ITER is based on the combined electrolysis and catalytic exchange(CECE) process to ensure the emission of tritium to the environment is maintained below very strict limits. The CECE process is one of the processes for tritium removal that CNL (Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, formerly Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.) has studied, developed and successfully demonstrated. In this work, CNL evaluated ITER’s design conditions of the exchange column and the electrolyser – the two key components of the CECE process (and the ITER WDS system) – to assess the effectiveness of tritium removal and investigate options to improve it. The evaluation was done using CNL’s CECE process simulation according to a protocol set out by ITER. Initially, calibration (benchmarking) of CNL’s hydrogen-water exchange column model was performed with a standard data set for a specified column to determine modeling parameters that resulted in a good match with the tritium concentration data. The model was then applied (with the same parameters) to the current WDS design. Some optimized conditions for the CECE process that could improve performance of the WDS to meet its design criteria were determined. The details of some of these assessments are presented here with particular attention to the WDS case where the feed water contains high levels of deuterium.