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Division Spotlight
Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
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
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. K. Anderson C. J. Beck, J. S. Theilacker
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 9 | Number 1 | January 1961 | Pages 1-15
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE61-A25858
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The cost of control rods which contributes a significant fraction to the total cost of a power reactor core is discussed as a function of metallurgical composition and reactor endurance. Materials considered include hafnium, Cd5-In15-Ag80 alloy, several boron carrying systems, and dispersions of such rare earth oxides as Eu2O3, Gd2O3, and Dy2O3. Costs based on a thorough analysis of processing variables and raw material prices are presented for a variety of rods for a specific reactor design considered typical of enriched power plants of the present generation. Concentrations were established by an approximate method described by Stevens. Although this method is relatively crude, results are considered adequate for purposes of this paper. For long-lived cores the lowest cost rods of proven composition were a composite rod with hafnium tip and boron dispersion upper blade or hafnium rods if the hafnium can be bought at presently quoted zirconium co-product prices. Rare earth cermets of properly adjusted composition also fell into an interesting price range. Boron dispersions though lower in cost cannot be considered among the proven materials for long-lived high burn-up cores. For shut down rods or cores of shorter endurance boron steels offer a low cost solution to the problem. For cores of intermediate endurance or shut down rods for longer endurance cores, Cd-In-Ag alloy rods may be of use and are certainly economically attractive.