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Division Spotlight
Education, Training & Workforce Development
The Education, Training & Workforce Development Division provides communication among the academic, industrial, and governmental communities through the exchange of views and information on matters related to education, training and workforce development in nuclear and radiological science, engineering, and technology. Industry leaders, education and training professionals, and interested students work together through Society-sponsored meetings and publications, to enrich their professional development, to educate the general public, and to advance nuclear and radiological science and engineering.
Meeting Spotlight
Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
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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Nuclear Science and Engineering
August 2024
Nuclear Technology
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.
M. Sharpe, W. T. Shmayda
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 79 | Number 8 | November 2023 | Pages 1219-1223
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2022.2147759
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The interaction of tritium with metal surfaces is the initial step in the overall absorption of tritium by the substrate metal. As a result, limiting the adsorption of tritium to the surface may effectively reduce the quantity of tritium absorbed by a metal when it is in contact with tritium gas. To limit tritium adsorption, many tritium users electroplate gold onto the substrate metal. The gold layer is expected to reduce tritium adsorption, and subsequently absorption, by reducing water adsorption.
The present work shows a comparison between tritium inventories in nonplated 316 stainless steel to the inventories in 316 stainless steel samples electroplated with gold by various commercial vendors and laboratories. Of the various gold-plated samples, only one type of plating shows ~25% reduction in tritium inventory, relative to nonplated steel samples. The degree of tritium absorption appears to be significantly influenced by the porosity, texture, and completeness of the gold layer. Incomplete and/or porous layers lead to increased absorption, while gold layers with smaller surface features lead to similar tritium inventories as nonplated samples. Reduced tritium absorption was observed only for complete gold layers with small surface features.