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Radiation Protection & Shielding
The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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
El Salvador: Looking to nuclear
In 2022, El Salvador’s leadership decided to expand its modest, mostly hydro- and geothermal-based electricity system, which is supported by expensive imported natural gas and diesel generation. They chose to use advanced nuclear reactors, preferably fueled by thorium-based fuels, to power their civilian efforts. The choice of thorium was made to inform the world that the reactor program was for civilian purposes only, and so they chose a fuel that was plentiful, easy to source and work with, and not a proliferation risk.
Jacobus J. Hancke, John C. Barry, Gerrit T. Van Rooyen, Johan P. R. De Villiers
Nuclear Technology | Volume 180 | Number 2 | November 2012 | Pages 149-158
Technical Paper | Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT12-A14630
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Coater parameters such as deposition temperature, volume percent of methyltrichlorosilane, and total gas flow were varied to study the effect on the ratio of defective TRISO nuclear fuel particles. The burn-leach test and other leach tests were performed to determine the defect ratio on samples of particles representing these variations. In the narrow ranges that were used, none of these parameters showed any correlation with the burn-leach result. However, a reduction in the density of the directly underlying carbon layer showed a marked increase in the defect ratio of particles. No trend could be observed when the density of the carbon layer was varied in the range of 1.8 to 2 g/cm3 , specified for TRISO particles. But, when the density was reduced to 1.7 and 1.6 g/cm3 , it was seldom possible to produce a batch that did not leach uranium, in spite of having a good quality SiC layer. This indicates that the integrity of the SiC layer is influenced by the quality of the underlying carbon layer. Mechanical damage is proposed as a mechanism responsible for the defective particles that are detected with the leach methods. This mechanism could be the reason for the variations in the leach results. Calculations and some examples show that all defects are not detected with the leach methods, probably because of the limited duration of these tests.