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Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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
First astatine-labeled compound shipped in the U.S.
The Department of Energy’s National Isotope Development Center (NIDC) on March 31 announced the successful long-distance shipment in the United States of a biologically active compound labeled with the medical radioisotope astatine-211 (At-211). Because previous shipments have included only the “bare” isotope, the NIDC has described the development as “unleashing medical innovation.”
Jan Wallenius, Kamil Tucek, Johan Carlsson, Waclaw Gudowski
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 137 | Number 1 | January 2001 | Pages 96-106
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE01-A2178
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The application of burnable absorbers (BAs) to minimize power peaking, reactivity loss, and capture-to-fission probabilities in an accelerator-driven waste transmutation system has been investigated. Boron-10-enriched B4C absorber rods were introduced into a lead-bismuth-cooled core fueled with transuranic (TRU) discharges from light water reactors to achieve the smallest possible power peakings at beginning-of-life (BOL) subcriticality level of 0.97. Detailed Monte Carlo simulations show that a radial power peaking equal to 1.2 at BOL is attainable using a four-zone differentiation in BA content. Using a newly written Monte Carlo burnup code, reactivity losses were calculated to be 640 pcm per percent TRU burnup for unrecycled TRU discharges. Comparing to corresponding values in BA-free cores, BA introduction diminishes reactivity losses in TRU-fueled subcritical cores by ~20%. Radial power peaking after 300 days of operation at 1200-MW thermal power was <1.75 at a subcriticality level of ~0.92, which appears to be acceptable, with respect to limitations in cladding and fuel temperatures. In addition, the use of BAs yields significantly higher fission-to-capture probabilities in even-neutron-number nuclides. Fission-to-absorption probability ratio for 241Am equal to 0.33 was achieved in the configuration studied. Hence, production of the strong alpha-emitter 242Cm is reduced, leading to smaller fuel-swelling rates and pin pressurization. Disadvantages following BA introduction, such as increase of void worth and decrease of Doppler feedback in conjunction with small values of eff, need to be addressed by detailed studies of subcritical core dynamics.