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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
2024 ANS Winter Conference and Expo
November 17–21, 2024
Orlando, FL|Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld
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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Latest News
Nuclear supply chain innovation and collaboration: Keeping the nuclear supply chain viable through change
The next nuclear renaissance may be upon us, but with it comes a perfect storm. The industry is unprepared for a surge in demand for goods and services from both the existing light water fleet and the next generation of reactors. We are currently teetering on the edge of severe supply chain issues, but if the nuclear industry can understand the sources of our challenges, we can mitigate them.
W. F. G. van Rooijen, J. L. Kloosterman, T. H. J. J. van der Hagen, H. van Dam
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 157 | Number 2 | October 2007 | Pages 185-199
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE07-A2721
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Generation IV gas-cooled fast reactor (GCFR) is intended to have a closed fuel cycle: During irradiation enough fissile material is produced to allow refueling of the same reactor, adding only fertile material. This is the well-known "zero breeding gain" objective. In this paper a theoretical framework is derived to track compositional changes of the fuel during irradiation, cooldown, and reprocessing, in order to calculate the reactivity of the new fuel compared to the original fuel material. Using first-order perturbation theory, the effect of variations of the initial fuel composition on the reprocessed material and breeding gain can be calculated. The theory is applied to the fuel cycle of a 600 MW(thermal) GCFR. The result is that the change of material composition during cooldown has a nonnegligible effect on the breeding gain. A truly closed fuel cycle can be obtained if the reprocessing efficiency is high enough (<1% loss). If this high efficiency cannot be obtained, adding a small amount of minor actinides (Np, Am, Cm) to the new fuel results in a zero breeding gain. Perturbation theory provides a powerful tool to estimate the effects of changing fuel cycle parameters.