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Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
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
Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
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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Nuclear Science and Engineering
August 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
ARPA-E announces $40 million to develop transmutation technologies for UNF
The Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) announced $40 million in funding to develop cutting-edge technologies to enable the transmutation of used nuclear fuel into less-radioactive substances. According to ARPA-E, the new initiative addresses one of the agency’s core goals as outlined by Congress: to provide transformative solutions to improve the management, cleanup, and disposal of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel.
C. Muirhead, H. Li, K. Pilatzke, M. Byers, R. Carson, H. Boniface, S. Suppiah
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 71 | Number 3 | April 2017 | Pages 281-285
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1290974
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) is developing a Proton Exchange Membrane-based (PEM) electrolyser intended for tritium removal. Commercially available Nafion® N-1110 membranes have been exposed to tritiated water (with a β activity of about 37 GBq/mL) prepared in the Tritium Facility at CNL. Three equivalent batches of Nafion® N-1110 membranes (each with a dimension of 4 cm × 4 cm) were exposed to β-doses of 67 kGy, 155 kGy, and 255 kGy, respectively.
The exposed membranes required decontamination for characterization and testing. A few different decontamination methods have been experimentally studied. These methods can be categorized as water elution and chemical soaking. The measured tritium concentration in eluent decreased quickly in the first 30 days of water elution, followed by a slow decay afterwards until reaching a plateau after about 100 days. Chemical soaking proved to be more effective than the water elution method and high temperature facilitated the tritium release.