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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.
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Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
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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
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.
Isao Murata, Shingo Tamaki, Sachie Kusaka, Indah Rosidah Maemunah, Fuminobu Sato, Hiroyuki Miyamaru, Shigeo Yoshida
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 79 | Number 4 | May 2023 | Pages 465-475
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2022.2151280
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A fusion reactor is known as a neutron-rich nuclear energy source. In this paper, neutrons are utilized to form an epithermal neutron irradiation field for boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT). Using the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) facility, a beam shaping assembly (BSA) was designed and placed just before the biological shield. Treatments were planned to be carried out just outside the biological shield. An opening was prepared in the vacuum vessel to guide deuteron-triton neutrons to the BSA. The BSA is about 1 m in thickness, and on the outside surface of the BSA, an epithermal neutron flux of 1 × 109 n/s‧cm−2 was aimed. As a result of the design, the irradiation field successfully met the design criteria of the BSA advocated by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The BSA moderator consists of a first filter of 45-cm-thick iron and a second filter of 70-cm-radius and 40-cm-thick AlF3. The epithermal neutron beam was available for diameters from 10 to 20 cm to cope with various sizes of tumors. Also, a titanium layer was specially introduced to remove fast neutrons just above 10 keV to reduce the fast neutron contribution. In addition, a caldera-shaped collimator was set just outside of the BSA to form a broad beam and to make the current-to-flux ratio larger than 0.7. It was shown from the present design that the performance was confirmed to be excellent compared to other BNCT facilities available at present, meaning that even deep-seated cancer treatment could be realized in the future in ITER.