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Division Spotlight
Young Members Group
The Young Members Group works to encourage and enable all young professional members to be actively involved in the efforts and endeavors of the Society at all levels (Professional Divisions, ANS Governance, Local Sections, etc.) as they transition from the role of a student to the role of a professional. It sponsors non-technical workshops and meetings that provide professional development and networking opportunities for young professionals, collaborates with other Divisions and Groups in developing technical and non-technical content for topical and national meetings, encourages its members to participate in the activities of the Groups and Divisions that are closely related to their professional interests as well as in their local sections, introduces young members to the rules and governance structure of the Society, and nominates young professionals for awards and leadership opportunities available to members.
Meeting Spotlight
Conference on Nuclear Training and Education: A Biennial International Forum (CONTE 2025)
February 3–6, 2025
Amelia Island, FL|Omni Amelia Island Resort
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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Christmas Night
Twas the night before Christmas when all through the houseNo electrons were flowing through even my mouse.
All devices were plugged in by the chimney with careWith the hope that St. Nikola Tesla would share.
L. A. Aguiar, P. F. Frutuoso e Melo, A. C. M. Alvim
Nuclear Technology | Volume 183 | Number 2 | August 2013 | Pages 228-247
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management and Disposal | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-A18113
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper aims to determine, for the period of institutional control (300 yr), the probability of occurrence of the net release scenario of radioactive waste from a near-surface repository. The radioactive waste focused on in this work is that of low and medium activity generated by a pressurized water reactor plant. The repository is divided into eight modules, each of which consists of six barriers (top cover, upper layer, packages, base, walls, and geosphere). The repository is a system where the modules work in series and the module barriers work in active parallel. The module failure probability for radioactive elements is obtained from a Markov model because of shared loads assumed for the different barriers. Lack of field failure data led to the necessity of performing sensitivity analyses to assess the failure rate impact on module and barrier failure probabilities. Module failure probabilities have been found to be lower for those radioactive elements with higher retardation coefficients. The geosphere mean time to failure is the most important parameter for calculating module failure probabilities for each radioactive element. The repository module has presented higher failure probabilities for iodine, technetium, and strontium. For iodine, the estimated probability is 16% for 300 yr and 96% for 1000 yr. The basis for performance evaluation of the deposition system is the understanding of its gradual evolution. There are many uncertainty sources in this modeling, and efforts in this direction are strongly recommended.