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Decommissioning & Environmental Sciences
The mission of the Decommissioning and Environmental Sciences (DES) Division is to promote the development and use of those skills and technologies associated with the use of nuclear energy and the optimal management and stewardship of the environment, sustainable development, decommissioning, remediation, reutilization, and long-term surveillance and maintenance of nuclear-related installations, and sites. The target audience for this effort is the membership of the Division, the Society, and the public at large.
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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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New laws offer nuclear industry incentives for existing power plant uprates
This year, the U.S. nuclear industry received a much-needed economic boost that could help preserve operating nuclear power plants and incentivize upgrades that extend their lifespan and power output.
Signed into law in 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act offers production tax credits (PTCs) for existing nuclear power plants and either PTCs or investment tax credits (ITCs) for new carbon-free generation. These credits could make power uprates—increasing the maximum power level at which a commercial plant may operate—a much more appealing option for utilities.
W. J. Walsh and George Burnet
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 25 | Number 3 | July 1966 | Pages 227-235
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE66-A17829
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
To learn more about liquid metal distillation as it might be applied to nuclear fuel recovery and reprocessing, liquid metal distillations involving the tin-zinc, cadmium-bismuth, and indium-zinc binary systems were conducted in an evacuated chamber. An x-ray fluorescence spectrometer provided a continuous chemical analysis of the distilling surface during each run. This information was used to evaluate the validity of various theories and assumptions concerning surface depletion, oxide contamination, and turbulence effects. The existence of a large surface depletion effect in nonturbulent metal distillations was proven. However, the level of turbulence necessary to eliminate concentration gradients was found to be much lower than that assumed by some designers of commercial equipment. The presence of surface oxides was often an important factor in determining the enrichment and rate of distillation. The Langmuir-Knudsen theory was shown to be unreliable when liquid diffusion or surface oxide resistances were significant. A more complete approach involving the principles of transport phenomena was developed. An analytical solution was derived for the nonturbulent case and was tested using the spectrometer data.