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Division Spotlight
Young Members Group
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.
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!
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Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2025
Nuclear Technology
April 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Norway’s Halden reactor takes first step toward decommissioning
The government of Norway has granted the transfer of the Halden research reactor from the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) to the state agency Norwegian Nuclear Decommissioning (NND). The 25-MWt Halden boiling water reactor operated from 1958 to 2018 and was used in the research of nuclear fuel, reactor internals, plant procedures and monitoring, and human factors.
Musharaf Rabbani, Anthony Busigin, Haiqin Mao, Nisa Halsey, Dayna La Barbera
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 80 | Number 3 | May 2024 | Pages 351-358
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2023.2235179
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In heavy water detritiation using the combined electrolysis and catalytic exchange (CECE) process, deuterium leaving the electrolyzer is fed to the bottom of the liquid-phase catalytic exchange column (LPCE) in which tritium exchanges between the tritiated deuterium gas (moving upward in the LPCE column) and D2O liquid (moving downward in the LPCE column). Once the deuterium gas leaves the LPCE column, typically a trickle bed recombiner (TBR) is used to convert the incoming deuterium gas into the heavy water.
In this study a different approach is presented in which instead of using a TBR, an additional LPCE column is used. In the additional LPCE column, deuterium gas is scrubbed with demineralized light water. This process alternative has many advantages over using a TBR. First, the oxidation of isotopic hydrogen is highly exothermic and requires a separate water-cooling circuit to maintain the temperature within the TBR. Second, a TBR requires a relatively complex internal design to ensure proper distribution of the gas, otherwise catalyst burnup may occur. Using a LPCE column instead of a TBR eliminates these complications. This paper presents a high-level layout of the process plant in which a LPCE column is used instead of a TBR. Column modeling and results are also presented.