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.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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
Jul 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
August 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
July 2025
Latest News
Hash Hashemian: Visionary leadership
As Dr. Hashem M. “Hash” Hashemian prepares to step into his term as President of the American Nuclear Society, he is clear that he wants to make the most of this unique moment.
A groundswell in public approval of nuclear is finding a home in growing governmental support that is backed by a tailwind of technological innovation. “Now is a good time to be in nuclear,” Hashemian said, as he explained the criticality of this moment and what he hoped to accomplish as president.
L. El-Guebaly, P. Wilson, D. Henderson, A. Varuttamaseni, ARIES-IFE Team
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 46 | Number 3 | November 2004 | Pages 506-518
Technical Paper | ARIES-IFE | doi.org/10.13182/FST04-A586
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The issue of waste management has been studied simultaneously along with the development of the ARIES heavy-ion-driven inertial fusion energy (IFE) concept. Options for waste management include disposal in repositories, recycling, or clearance from regulatory control, following a reasonable cooling period. This paper concerns the feasibility of recycling the heavy-ion-beam targets, in particular the hohlraum wall materials that include, for example, Au/Gd, Au, W, Pb, Hg, Ta, Pb/Ta/Cs, Hg/W/Cs, Pb/Hf, Hf, solid Kr, and solid Xe. The choice between target material disposal and recycling depends on the amount of waste generated relative to the nuclear island, the strategy to solve the recycling problem, and the impact of the additional cost and complexity of the recycling process on the overall machine. A detailed flow diagram for the elements of the recycling process was developed to analyze two extreme activation cases: (a) one-shot use and then disposal in a repository and (b) recycling continuously during plant life without removal of transmutation products. Metrics for comparing the two scenarios included waste level, dose to recycling equipment, additional cost, and design complexity. Comparing the two approaches indicated a preference for the one-shot scenario as it generates 1 m3/yr of extremely low-level waste (Class A) and offers attractive design and economics features. Recycling reduces the target waste stream by a factor of 10 or more but introduces additional issues. It may produce high-level waste, requires remote handling, adds radioactive storage facilities, and increases the cost and complexity of the plant. The inventory analysis indicated that the heavy-ion-beam (HIB) target materials represent a very small waste stream compared to that of the nuclear island (<1% of the total waste). This means recycling is not a "must" requirement for IFE-HIB power plants unless the target materials have cost and/or resource problems (e.g., Au and Gd). In this case, the additional cost and complexity of the recycling process should be factored into the economics of IFE power plants.
