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Division Spotlight
Accelerator Applications
The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
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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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Penn State and Westinghouse make eVinci microreactor plan official
Penn State and Westinghouse Electric Company are working together to site a new research reactor on Penn State’s University Park, Pa., campus: Westinghouse’s eVinci, a HALEU TRISO-fueled sodium heat-pipe reactor. Penn State has announced that it submitted a letter of intent to host and operate an eVinci reactor to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on February 28 and plans to engage with the NRC on specific siting decisions. Penn State already boasts the Breazeale reactor, which began operating in 1955 as the first licensed research reactor at a university in the United States. At 70, the Breazeale reactor is still in operation.
Louis J. Barbieri, J. Wallace Webster, Ken Tang Chow
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 5 | Number 2 | February 1959 | Pages 105-119
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE59-A25563
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The economics and physics of plutonium recycle in the Calder Hall type reactor are considered. Three possible schemes of recycle are studied. In scheme A the plutonium produced in a run is blended with fresh natural uranium for a subsequent run; in scheme B the plutonium is alloyed with some diluent metal and fabricated into high heat-transfer elements more like MTR- or PWR-seed type elements and a subsequent load of fresh natural uranium elements is “spiked” with these plutonium elements; and in scheme C half the spent uranium is recycled as well as the plutonium. The conclusions are that scheme A will be the most economic means of recycle and will compete very favorably with the mode of operation where the plutonium is sold at the end of each run for $12 per gm. Viewed in another way, with natural uranium having its current value and lease charge, the fuel value of plutonium for recycling, with all costs considered, will be greater than $12 per gm. Schemes B and C do not look as attractive as A for the Calder Hall type reactor. The results are predicated on the assumption that the fuel elements will withstand exposure levels as high as 8800 Mwd/ton. This is beyond present experience, but it is believed that it is not unrealistic to assume that such exposures will be achieved in the future with improved fuel elements. A matrix-analytic solution to the differential equations governing isotopic concentrations as functions of flux-time is also developed.
