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Division Spotlight
Young Members Group
The Young Members Group works to encourage and enable all young professional members to be actively involved in the efforts and endeavors of the Society at all levels (Professional Divisions, ANS Governance, Local Sections, etc.) as they transition from the role of a student to the role of a professional. It sponsors non-technical workshops and meetings that provide professional development and networking opportunities for young professionals, collaborates with other Divisions and Groups in developing technical and non-technical content for topical and national meetings, encourages its members to participate in the activities of the Groups and Divisions that are closely related to their professional interests as well as in their local sections, introduces young members to the rules and governance structure of the Society, and nominates young professionals for awards and leadership opportunities available to members.
Meeting Spotlight
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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Nuclear Science and Engineering
March 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
February 2025
Latest News
ARG-US Remote Monitoring Systems: Use Cases and Applications in Nuclear Facilities and During Transportation
As highlighted in the Spring 2024 issue of Radwaste Solutions, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory are developing and deploying ARG-US—meaning “Watchful Guardian”—remote monitoring systems technologies to enhance the safety, security, and safeguards (3S) of packages of nuclear and other radioactive material during storage, transportation, and disposal.
Joshua Ruegsegger, Connor Moreno, Matthew Nyberg, Tim Bohm, Paul P. H. Wilson, Ben Lindley
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 197 | Number 8 | August 2023 | Pages 1911-1927
Technical papers from: PHYSOR 2022 | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2022.2154118
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A feasibility study of a subcritical fission-fusion hybrid reactor using lead-lithium eutectic as a coolant and minor actinides (MAs) as fuel is presented. Such a reactor could support the fission community by transmuting MAs and the fusion community by breeding tritium. The feasibility of such a reactor for the burnup of MAs is assessed in terms of burnup performance, tritium breeding, and safety characteristics. Tandem mirrors are a promising neutron source technology, and a deuterium-tritium tandem mirror is considered here for the neutron source with power Psource = 1.13 MW assumed for scoping purposes. Subcritical reactivities from keff = 0.9800 to keff = 0.9950 were considered, representing the initial reference for subcritical reactivity and the assessed upper limit, respectively. Stability analyses indicated the reactivity would be stable under perturbations of fuel, coolant, and inlet temperatures, with a positive reactivity insertion expected during reactor shutdown. This range corresponded to nuclear heating values of 150 to 650 MW and mass burn rates of 53 to 216 kg/year. The upper mass burn rate limit would require 1110 reactor years with a capacity factor of 0.9 to fission the global supply of MAs and could offset the annual U.S. MA production with eight reactors. Tritium breeding was assessed for keff = 0.9800 and 3.795% 6Li enrichment in the coolant, and a tritium breeding ratio of 1.602 0.017 was tallied, suggesting the reactor could, without elevated 6Li enrichment, produce tritium to both sustain operation and supply tritium for other fusion devices. Time-series modeling of fuel burnup was conducted for a four-batch loading scheme and three different fuel residence times at keff = 0.9800, which showed system performance would drop with burnup, and that the rate of this drop was lower for longer fuel residence times, motivating a means of reactivity control. Last, changes in fuel composition with burnup were assessed for relative concentrations of MAs, transmutation products, and fission products. The breeding of plutonium in the blanket was calculated and found to be of minimal proliferation concern.
