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Division Spotlight
Nuclear Criticality Safety
NCSD provides communication among nuclear criticality safety professionals through the development of standards, the evolution of training methods and materials, the presentation of technical data and procedures, and the creation of specialty publications. In these ways, the division furthers the exchange of technical information on nuclear criticality safety with the ultimate goal of promoting the safe handling of fissionable materials outside reactors.
Meeting Spotlight
Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
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
ARPA-E announces $40 million to develop transmutation technologies for UNF
The Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) announced $40 million in funding to develop cutting-edge technologies to enable the transmutation of used nuclear fuel into less-radioactive substances. According to ARPA-E, the new initiative addresses one of the agency’s core goals as outlined by Congress: to provide transformative solutions to improve the management, cleanup, and disposal of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel.
Ding She, Zhihong Liu, Lei Shi
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 185 | Number 2 | February 2017 | Pages 351-360
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2016.1272363
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Dispersion fuel is used in high-temperature reactors (HTRs) and some other advanced reactors. It contains a stochastic mixture of microsphere fuel grains or burnable poison grains embedded in a matrix material, which leads to the so-called double heterogeneity problem in the neutron transport calculation. This work investigates an equivalent homogenization method to deal with the stochastic media. In this method, the stochastic media are transformed to a homogenized material by introducing spatial self-shielding factors and preserving first-collision probabilities. A transmission model is proposed to calculate the first-collision probabilities and the self-shielding factors. In addition, the method is extended to treat the stochastic media with multitype grains. The applicability and correction techniques for the proposed method are discussed. The proposed method has been implemented in a lattice physics code named XPZ for HTRs. Numerical results are presented for typical HTR fuel pebbles and are validated against Monte Carlo solutions. It is concluded that the proposed equivalent homogenization method is promising for treating the double-heterogeneity problem and can be conveniently implemented in existing lattice physics codes.