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Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Division Spotlight
Aerospace Nuclear Science & Technology
Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
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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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Taking shape: Fusion energy ecosystems built with public-private partnerships
It’s possible to describe fusion in simple terms: heat and squeeze small atoms to get abundant clean energy. But there’s nothing simple about getting fusion ready for the grid.
Private developers, national lab and university researchers, suppliers, and end users working toward that goal are developing a range of complex technologies to reach fusion temperatures and pressures, confounded by science and technology gaps linked to plasma behavior; materials, diagnostics, and electronics for extreme environments; fuel cycle sustainability; and economics.
Gasper Zerovnik, Luka Snoj, Matjaz Ravnik
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 163 | Number 2 | October 2009 | Pages 183-190
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE163-183
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
We demonstrated the use of combinatorial methods to optimize the filling of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) in metal canisters for final deep SNF repository, according to the maximal allowed thermal power per canister Pmax and the limit of n = 4 spent-fuel assemblies per canister. As a next step, the deposition time can be optimized by minimizing the required number of canisters M and the interim storage time. The method has been tested in detail for a typical pressurized water reactor (PWR), nuclear power plant (NPP) Krsko, SNF for different numbers of reactor cycles and different Pmax. The results show that the time interval between the last reactor cycle and the optimal deposition time varies between 3 and 30 yr for a typical PWR. The most significant contribution to the uncertainty of the calculated SNF decay heat (thermal power) is due to inaccurate cross sections taken from generic cross-section libraries. The quality of the results was verified by comparing the calculated M to the theoretical lower boundary Mmin. The idea behind the optimization method is universal and thus can be implemented for any SNF, canister, and repository design.