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Division Spotlight
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
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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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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
First astatine-labeled compound shipped in the U.S.
The Department of Energy’s National Isotope Development Center (NIDC) on March 31 announced the successful long-distance shipment in the United States of a biologically active compound labeled with the medical radioisotope astatine-211 (At-211). Because previous shipments have included only the “bare” isotope, the NIDC has described the development as “unleashing medical innovation.”
R. Gangradey, J. Mishra, S. Mukherjee, P. Nayak, P. Panchal, J. Agarwal, V. Gupta
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 77 | Number 5 | July 2021 | Pages 333-339
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2021.1904770
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A cryopump works on the principle of cooling down a metal surface or a surface coated with a porous material, namely, cryopanels, to cryogenic temperature. The gases stick to cryopanels thus lowering pressure and thereby creating a vacuum in an enclosed space. Materials used in the development of cryopumps include metals like copper and steel as structural materials, composite material like G10 for supports, thermal insulation, adhesive to fix sorbent to the metal surface, Vespel as an insulator, and various kinds of coatings on metal surfaces. Thermal properties govern heat load management and thereby the temperature of the cryopanels and hence pumping phenomena. This paper focuses on the experimental investigation of properties like specific heat, thermal diffusivity, thermal conductivity of materials, and their variation with lowering of temperature to cryogenic levels. A study was carried out to quantify the thermal properties of adhesive to fix the sorbent, the metal sheet of the cryopanel coated with activated charcoal granules using the adhesive, materials like G10 and Vespel, and high-emissivity black coating. The thermal conductivity (studied up to −150°C) for different kinds of adhesives was found to be in the range of 0.48 to 0.9 W/m‧K; for Vespel SP21 and G10, it is 0.58 and 0.8 W/m‧K, respectively. The emissivity at room temperature of the sorbent-coated cryopanels was 0.94, and for the high-emissivity black coating, it was in the range of 0.93 to 0.94.