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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
Uncertainty contributes to lowest uranium spot prices in 18 months
A combination of plentiful supply and uncertain demand resulted in spot pricing for uranium closing out March below $64 per pound, with dips down to about $63.50 during mid-March—the lowest futures prices in 18 months, according to tracking by analysis firm Trading Economics. Spot prices have also fallen steadily since the beginning of 2024. Meanwhile, long-term prices have held steady at about $80 per pound at the end of March, according to Canadian front-end uranium mining, milling, and conversion company Cameco.
Igor Peñalva, Gustavo A. Esteban, Natalia Alegría, Jon Azkurreta, María Urrestizala, Marta Malo, Belit Garcinuño, David Rapisarda
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 80 | Number 3 | May 2024 | Pages 596-606
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2023.2194237
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The determination of the transport parameters of the hydrogen isotopes in the eutectic lead-lithium (PbLi) alloy represents a key issue for the design of the different breeding blanket systems that are being developed based on this liquid metal. This is the case for the dual-coolant lithium-lead blanket where the values of the Sieverts’ constant and diffusivity will delimit the magnitude and the kinetics of the induced tritium flux produced by the breeding blanket toward the circuit of He for the refrigeration of the structures. In addition, the design (sizing and efficiency) of future tritium extraction systems of the breeding alloy or the He coolant purification system will be defined on the basis of these transport parameters.
Taking into account the current literature, there exists a very wide band (even more than three orders of magnitude) in the experimental results for the Sieverts’ constant obtained by different research groups using different experimental techniques. This dispersion band in terms of solubility is not acceptable from the point of view of the design of a breeding blanket for a fusion reactor. With the aim of reducing this dispersion of results, the Absorption-Desorption facility available at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) has been upgraded and new samples of high quality PbLi will be measured in the near future in collaboration with CIEMAT.
In this work, a complete theoretical model is described for the interaction between isotopes of hydrogen and the eutectic PbLi sample considering the particular boundary conditions for the absorption and desorption processes. This model has been specifically developed for the upgraded Absorption-Desorption facility available at the UPV/EHU, according to the new configuration of the experimental chamber made of glass and quartz and the geometry of the crucible made of tungsten that is designed to hold the PbLi sample. Three different phases are described (loading, pumping, and release) together with the boundary conditions that have been taken into account in each one. This way, different mathematical expressions for the concentration profile of the isotopes of hydrogen through the PbLi sample are posed for each phase so that the experimental measurements to be carried out in the upgraded Absorption-Desorption facility will be fitted to them, and as a result, the transport parameters will be obtained.
