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Division Spotlight
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.
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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Latest News
From South Korea to Belgium: Testing a high-density research reactor fuel
The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute has developed a high-density uranium silicide fuel designed to replace high-enriched uranium in research reactors. Recent irradiation tests appear to be successful, KAERI reports, which means the fuel could be commercialized to continue a key global nuclear nonproliferation effort—converting research reactors to run on low-enriched uranium fuel.
Jamie B. Coble, Steven E. Skutnik, S. Nathan Gilliam, Michael P. Cooper
Nuclear Technology | Volume 206 | Number 12 | December 2020 | Pages 1803-1826
Critical Review | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2020.1724728
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Electrochemical reprocessing (also commonly known as pyroprocessing) of used nuclear fuel is an alternative to aqueous reprocessing that confers a number of advantages, including the ability to process more recently discharged fuel, smaller resultant waste volumes, and the lack of isolation of plutonium in the product stream. While electrochemical reprocessing systems have seen a significant research and development effort, nuclear safeguards and the security of these systems remain underdeveloped, particularly given the significant differences in operating environment and process flow sheet compared with established aqueous methods. In this paper we present an overview of the current state of the art for several of the most promising candidate techniques for material accountancy and process monitoring measurements for electrochemical separations facilities for used nuclear fuel, specifically passive radiation signatures (gamma spectroscopy, neutron spectroscopy, alpha spectrometry, calorimetry, and microcalorimetry), active radiation signatures (X-ray interrogation and its derivatives, high-resolution X-ray, k-edge densitometry, and hybrid k-edge densitometry; laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy; active neutron interrogation and neutron coincidence counting; inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry; and optical measurements such as ultraviolet visible spectroscopy, near-infrared spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy), and control and process state variable monitoring (cyclic voltammetry and bulk measurements such as level and density, load cell forces, and off-gas monitors). This assessment includes an evaluation of each measurement’s respective modality (i.e., whether the measurement relates to elemental, isotopic, or other properties), published best estimates of measurement precision, measurement latency, and an overall evaluation of each technique’s level of technical maturity. Additionally, this study assesses the most likely locations within the pyroprocessing flow sheet where measurements may be deployed, the physical information required to properly capture the behavior of such measurements, and potential modeling strategies for such measurements. This latter component thus serves to inform future development of process monitoring models in existing and proposed electrochemical separations simulation models.