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Division Spotlight
Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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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February 2024
Latest News
Can hydrogen be the transportation fuel in an otherwise nuclear economy?
Let’s face it: The global economy should be powered primarily by nuclear power. And it probably will by the end of this century, with a still-significant assist from renewables and hydro. Once nuclear systems are dominant, the costs come down to where gas is now; and when carbon emissions are reduced to a small portion of their present state, it will become obvious that most other sources are only good in niche settings. I mean, why use small modular reactors to load-follow when they can just produce that power instead of buffering it?
Charles Forsberg, Guiqiu (Tony) Zheng, Ronald G. Ballinger, Stephen T. Lam
Nuclear Technology | Volume 206 | Number 11 | November 2020 | Pages 1778-1801
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2019.1691400
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Recent developments in high-magnetic-field fusion systems have created large incentives to develop flibe (Li2BeF4) salt fusion blankets that have four functions: (1) convert the high energy of fusion neutrons into heat for the power system, (2) convert lithium into tritium—the fusion fuel, (3) shield the magnets against radiation, and (4) cool the first wall that separates the plasma from the salt blanket. Flibe is the same coolant proposed for fluoride-salt-cooled high-temperature reactors that use clean flibe coolant and graphite-matrix coated-particle fuel. Flibe is also the coolant proposed for some molten salt reactors (MSRs) where the fuel is dissolved in the coolant. The multiple applications for flibe as a coolant create large incentives for cooperative fusion-fission programs for development of the underlying science, design tools, technology (pumps, instrumentation, salt purification, materials, tritium removal, etc.), and supply chains. Other high-temperature molten salts are being developed for alternative MSR systems and for advanced Gen-III concentrated solar power (CSP) systems. The overlapping characteristics of flibe salt with these other salt systems create significant incentives for cooperative fusion-fission-solar programs in multiple areas.
We describe the fission and fusion flibe-cooled systems, what has created this synergism, what is different and the same between fission and fusion in terms of using flibe, and the common challenges. We review (1) the characteristics of flibe salts, (2) the status of the technology, (3) the options for tritium capture and control in the salt, heat exchangers, and secondary heat transfer loops, and (4) the coupling to power cycles with heat storage. The technology overlap between flibe systems and other high-temperature MSR and CSP salt systems is described. This defines where there are opportunities for cooperative programs across fission, fusion, and CSP salt programs.