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Division Spotlight
Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
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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May 2025
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April 2025
Latest News
Waste Management 2025: Building a new era of nuclear
While attendance at the 2025 Waste Management Conference was noticeably down this year due to the ongoing federal retrenchment, the conference, held March 9-13 in Phoenix, Ariz., still drew a healthy and diverse crowd of people working on the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle, both domestically and internationally.
Wanyi Tian, Yanfei Zhang, Weiwei Chen, Junhao Zhang, Bingyu Ni, Chao Jiang
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 199 | Number 3 | March 2025 | Pages 518-529
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2024.2372516
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s requirements for the minimization of radioactive waste, nuclear facility components need to be cut into smaller blocks and packaged in waste containers during decommissioning. Therefore, it is important to increase the space utilization (SU) of the cut blocks in the containers while reducing the cutting time (CT). In engineering practice, increasing SU often leads to longer CTs, which poses a great challenge to improve the efficiency of the nuclear decommissioning process. To overcome this challenge and to determine the optimal operational parameters, this paper introduces a multi-objective optimization design method for cutting and packaging nuclear facility components. The goal is to increase SU while concurrently reducing CTs, ultimately minimizing the waste and reducing the decommissioning cost. First, we project the intricate three-dimensional (3D) irregular parts packing problem onto a two-dimensional plane to simplify the complexity inherent in 3D parts packing and to formulate a packing optimization model. Second, we employ the Morris method to perform global sensitivity analysis on critical parameters, including cutting angle, height, component radius, and plate thickness parameters, throughout the cutting process of nuclear facility components. This analysis produces global sensitivity indicators for each parameter, facilitating a precise assessment of the sensitivity values associated with different operational parameters. Finally, we formulate a multi-objective design optimization model for cutting and packing nuclear facility components that yields a series of alternative operating parameter solutions upon solving it. This methodology offers a resolution for the selection of optimal operational parameters in the decommissioning process of nuclear facility components, thereby attaining optimal outcomes in waste disposal and furnishing guidance for subsequent decommissioning activities.