ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Division Spotlight
Isotopes & Radiation
Members are devoted to applying nuclear science and engineering technologies involving isotopes, radiation applications, and associated equipment in scientific research, development, and industrial processes. Their interests lie primarily in education, industrial uses, biology, medicine, and health physics. Division committees include Analytical Applications of Isotopes and Radiation, Biology and Medicine, Radiation Applications, Radiation Sources and Detection, and Thermal Power Sources.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Apr 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2025
Nuclear Technology
April 2025
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.
Makoto Oyaidzu, Masayuki Ohta, Kentaro Ochiai, Atsushi Kasugai
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 77 | Number 7 | November 2021 | Pages 842-847
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2021.1962119
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In the Advanced Fusion Neutron Source (A-FNS), an accelerator-driven fusion-relevant neutron source that is planned for development in Japan, a few grams (3.5 g at full power operation) of tritium will be generated every year, mainly in the lithium target system. Since the generated tritium would migrate out of the lithium target system, it is necessary to estimate the tritium migration into and out of the lithium target system for the design of detritiation systems for the A-FNS. Therefore, a preliminary estimation is performed in the present study. As a result, it is found that almost all of the generated tritium in the lithium target system would be trapped in the impurity removal system, while less than 0.5% would migrate out. It is also indicated that the amount of tritium that would migrate out of the lithium target system would be able to be processed with the existing techniques so far.
