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Division Spotlight
Thermal Hydraulics
The division provides a forum for focused technical dialogue on thermal hydraulic technology in the nuclear industry. Specifically, this will include heat transfer and fluid mechanics involved in the utilization of nuclear energy. It is intended to attract the highest quality of theoretical and experimental work to ANS, including research on basic phenomena and application to nuclear system design.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
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
TerraPower begins U.K. regulatory approval process
Seattle-based TerraPower signaled its interest this week in building its Natrium small modular reactor in the United Kingdom, the company announced.
TerraPower sent a letter to the U.K.’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, formally establishing its intention to enter the U.K. generic design assessment (GDA) process. This is TerraPower’s first step in deployment of its Natrium technology—a 345-MW sodium fast reactor coupled with a molten salt energy storage unit—on the international stage.
George D. Cremeans
Nuclear Technology | Volume 87 | Number 4 | December 1989 | Pages 745-754
Technical Paper | TMI-2: Decontamination and Waste Management / Radioactive Waste Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT89-A27667
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The March 1979 accident at Three Mile Island Unit 2 and the subsequent 10-yr cleanup generated ∼8706 m3 (∼2300000 gal) of radioactively contaminated water, herein referred to as accident-generated water (AGW). Although most, if not all, of this inventory could be decontaminated to acceptable regulatory levels governing river discharge and released to the Susquehanna River, a settlement agreement with the city of Lancaster specifically prohibited the utility from doing so prior to an acceptable environmental evaluation by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. To dispose of this large water inventory, nine alternative disposal methods were evaluated. This evaluation considered each method’s technical feasibility, environmental effect, cost, and public acceptance. On the basis of these criteria, as well as political and institutional considerations, disposal of the AGW by forced evaporation and collection of the evaporated solids was selected as the most acceptable method. The selected method is designed to provide a decontamination factor of 1000 to the radioactive particulates in the AGW. The system consists of (a) a vapor recompression distillation unit to distill the AGW in a closed cycle process and collect the purified distillate for subsequent release by vaporization, (b) an auxiliary evaporatory to further concentrate the bottoms from the main evaporator, (c) a flash vaporizer unit to flash the purified distillate to the atmosphere in a controlled and monitored manner, (d) a blender/dryer to produce a dry solid from the concentrated waste, and (e) a packaging system to prepare and package the solid waste in containers acceptable for shipment and burial at a commercial low-level radioactive waste disposal site. The projected time span for AGW disposal operations is ∼2 yr, allowing for scheduled availability of the 8706-m3 (2300000-gal) inventory and planned system maintenance time. The estimated volume of waste generated, packaged, and shipped during this operation is ∼145 tonnes (∼160 t). The waste conforms to the burial requirements for class A and transportation requirements for low specific activity radioactive material.
