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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
ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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April 2025
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Nuclear News 40 Under 40 discuss the future of nuclear
Seven members of the inaugural Nuclear News 40 Under 40 came together on March 4 to discuss the current state of nuclear energy and what the future might hold for science, industry, and the public in terms of nuclear development.
To hear more insights from this talented group of young professionals, watch the “40 Under 40 Roundtable: Perspectives from Nuclear’s Rising Stars” on the ANS website.
Brian M. Patterson, John Sain, Richard Seugling, Miguel Santiago-Cordoba, Lynne Goodwin, John Oertel, Joseph Cowan, Christopher E. Hamilton, Nikolaus L. Cordes, Stuart A. Gammon, Theodore F. Baumann
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 73 | Number 2 | March 2018 | Pages 173-182
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1364923
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The measurement of the density of materials, especially ultralow-density foams, is difficult in that the measurement must be precise and localizable. The density of the material is often governed by its cellular (i.e., porous) structure, and many techniques exist to create that structure. Often, the cellular structure can vary from one location within the material to another, and when at low densities (i.e., densities lower than ~500 mg/cm3), it can vary due to shrinkage during syneresis, collapse under the weight of gravity, or gas/water vapor uptake. Quantifying this variation is important for a variety of applications, especially when used in plasma physics targets. Knowing the density and its variation across the sample is critical for experimental results to be accurately predicted by physics calculations and for modeling the results of the physics targets. The use of quasi-monochromatic radiography provides a means to image the two-dimensional (2-D) distribution of density variation within silica aerogel materials and to quantitatively measure that variation from sample to sample and lot to lot. For this study, two batches of silica aerogels with targeted densities of ~20 mg/cm3 were created, one batch at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the other batch at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Outlined here is a quasi-monochromatic radiography system using various X-ray sources coupled to a doubly curved crystal optic and X-ray charge-coupled device camera to image and characterize these materials. It was found that measuring the density both gravimetrically and using quasi-monochromatic radiography were statistically identical, although the two batches were found to be slightly higher than their targeted density due to shrinkage. The radiography system also provided 2-D information as to the aerogel quality, i.e., presence of voids, chipped material, or inclusions.