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The Young Members Group works to encourage and enable all young professional members to be actively involved in the efforts and endeavors of the Society at all levels (Professional Divisions, ANS Governance, Local Sections, etc.) as they transition from the role of a student to the role of a professional. It sponsors non-technical workshops and meetings that provide professional development and networking opportunities for young professionals, collaborates with other Divisions and Groups in developing technical and non-technical content for topical and national meetings, encourages its members to participate in the activities of the Groups and Divisions that are closely related to their professional interests as well as in their local sections, introduces young members to the rules and governance structure of the Society, and nominates young professionals for awards and leadership opportunities available to members.
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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
Argonne research aims to improve nuclear fuel recycling and metal recovery
Servis
Scientists at Argonne National Laboratory are investigating a used nuclear fuel recycling technology that could lead to a scaled-down and more efficient approach to metal recovery, according to a recent news article from the lab. The research, led by Argonne radiochemist Anna Servis with funding from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E), could have an impact beyond the nuclear fuel cycle and improve other high-value metal processing, such as rare earth recovery, according to Argonne.
The research: Servis’s work is being carried out under ARPA-E’s CURIE (Converting UNF Radioisotopes Into Energy) program. The specific project—Radioisotope Capture Intensification Using Rotating Packed Bed Contactors—started in 2023 and is scheduled to end in January 2026.
Joharimanitra Randrianandraina, Manuel Grivet, Christophe Ramseyer, Jean-Emmanuel Groetz, Bruno Cardey, Freddy Torrealba Anzola, Didier Ducret, Caroline Chambelland
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 77 | Number 1 | January 2021 | Pages 19-25
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2020.1842680
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This work is motivated by the results obtained during a study on the tritiated water adsorbed in zeolite [L. Frances et al., J. Phys. Chem. C, 119, 28462 (2015)]. The decomposition of water by radiolysis leads to the production of dioxygen and dihydrogen as main stable products. By studying the evolution of their quantities of matter, one can note an increase in a first stage, followed by a decrease after a few hundred days of storage until complete disappearance. This interesting process depends on the water loading ratios, expressed in mass percentage, lying between 4%, and 19%; such a phenomenon is not observed in saturated zeolite. Our goal is to determine, through numerical simulations, how this disappearance, which is associated with the recombination of the radiolysis products, occurs by making a microscopic study on the adsorption of H2O, H2, and O2 molecules on 4A zeolite (Z4A). Computational physics is useful to understand the effects of molecule adsorption on its structure and also to closely examine the molecule-zeolite and molecule-molecule interactions. Indeed, different simulation methods are used from static to dynamic studies employing both quantum and classical tools with the periodical structure of Z4A. To summarize, the adsorption of molecules from the radiolysis of water are studied according to different points of view (quantum and classical) using various numerical simulation tools, such as density functional theory for ab initio structural optimization and energy calculation, Monte Carlo to study the distribution of the adsorbed molecules in the zeolite, and molecular dynamics to follow the evolution of the system (molecule + zeolite) over time depending on the temperature, in order to extract as much information as possible (structurally, statistically, energy, electronically) to understand the main problematic of this work: How do stable molecules issued from radiolysis recombine in Z4A?