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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.
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2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
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Glass strategy: Hanford’s enhanced waste glass program
The mission of the Department of Energy’s Office of River Protection (ORP) is to complete the safe cleanup of waste resulting from decades of nuclear weapons development. One of the most technologically challenging responsibilities is the safe disposition of approximately 56 million gallons of radioactive waste historically stored in 177 tanks at the Hanford Site in Washington state.
ORP has a clear incentive to reduce the overall mission duration and cost. One pathway is to develop and deploy innovative technical solutions that can advance baseline flow sheets toward higher efficiency operations while reducing identified risks without compromising safety. Vitrification is the baseline process that will convert both high-level and low-level radioactive waste at Hanford into a stable glass waste form for long-term storage and disposal.
Although vitrification is a mature technology, there are key areas where technology can further reduce operational risks, advance baseline processes to maximize waste throughput, and provide the underpinning to enhance operational flexibility; all steps in reducing mission duration and cost.
Youshi Zeng, Wenguan Liu, Wei Liu, Guanghua Wang, Yuan Qian, Nan Qian, Xiaoling Wu, Yu Huang, Shengwei Wu
Nuclear Technology | Volume 205 | Number 4 | April 2019 | Pages 582-591
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2018.1507200
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In the Thorium-Based Molten Salt Reactor (TMSR), tritium is produced at a high rate, which results in huge difficulties regarding tritium control. Tritium distributions in a 2-MW liquid-fueled molten salt experimental reactor (TMSR-LF1) were simulated with the TMSR–Tritium Transport Analysis Code (TTAC) (TMSR-TTAC) that was developed for analysis of tritium behaviors in the TMSR. The simulation for normal operation showed that about 60% of the tritium would permeate through the metal walls of the system, 25% of the tritium was removed by the purge gas system, and 15% of the tritium was absorbed on the core graphite. In addition, the effects on tritium distribution of the chemical-redox potential in fuel salt, the tritium permeation behavior through the metal walls, and various tritium removal methods in the TMSR-LF1 have also been simulated. The simulation results based on those conditions are analyzed in this paper to improve the knowledge of tritium behavior in the TMSR-LF1 and to provide reliable methods and strategies for tritium control in the TMSR system.