ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Division Spotlight
Decommissioning & Environmental Sciences
The mission of the Decommissioning and Environmental Sciences (DES) Division is to promote the development and use of those skills and technologies associated with the use of nuclear energy and the optimal management and stewardship of the environment, sustainable development, decommissioning, remediation, reutilization, and long-term surveillance and maintenance of nuclear-related installations, and sites. The target audience for this effort is the membership of the Division, the Society, and the public at large.
Meeting Spotlight
ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Apr 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2025
Nuclear Technology
April 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
First astatine-labeled compound shipped in the U.S.
The Department of Energy’s National Isotope Development Center (NIDC) on March 31 announced the successful long-distance shipment in the United States of a biologically active compound labeled with the medical radioisotope astatine-211 (At-211). Because previous shipments have included only the “bare” isotope, the NIDC has described the development as “unleashing medical innovation.”
D. Guzonas, F. Brosseau, P. Tremaine, J. Meesungnoen, J.-P. Jay-Gerin
Nuclear Technology | Volume 179 | Number 2 | August 2012 | Pages 205-219
Technical Paper | Nuclear Plant Operations and Control | doi.org/10.13182/NT12-A14093
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The long-term viability of a supercritical water-cooled reactor (SCWR) will depend on the ability of designers and operators to control and maintain water chemistry conditions that will minimize corrosion and the transport of both corrosion products and radionuclides, at a pressure of 25 MPa and temperatures from 300°C to 625°C. To achieve this goal, the behavior of low concentrations of impurities such as transition metal corrosion products, chemistry control agents, impurities in the feedwater, and radionuclides (fission and activation products) in subcritical and supercritical water must be understood. A second key aspect of SCWR water chemistry control will be mitigation of the effects of water radiolysis. Preliminary studies suggest markedly different behavior than that predicted by extrapolating conventional water-cooled reactor behavior. The principal challenge in predicting corrosion and fission product transport is the lack of thermochemical and kinetic data above 300°C. Calculations with extrapolated data show that the formation of neutral complexes increases with temperature and can become important under near-critical and supercritical conditions. The most important region is from 300°C to 450°C, where the properties of water change dramatically and solvent compressibility effects exert a huge influence on solvation. The potential for increased transport and deposition of corrosion products (radioactive and inactive), leading to increased deposition on fuel cladding surfaces and increased out-of-core radiation fields and worker dose, must be assessed. The commonly used strategy of adding excess hydrogen at concentrations sufficient to suppress the net radiolytic production of primary oxidizing species may not be effective in an SCWR. Because direct measurement of the chemistry under such extreme conditions of temperature, pressure, and radiation fields is difficult, the most promising approach involves a combination of theoretical calculations, chemical models, and experimental work.