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Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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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Norway’s Halden reactor takes first step toward decommissioning
The government of Norway has granted the transfer of the Halden research reactor from the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) to the state agency Norwegian Nuclear Decommissioning (NND). The 25-MWt Halden boiling water reactor operated from 1958 to 2018 and was used in the research of nuclear fuel, reactor internals, plant procedures and monitoring, and human factors.
Claude Degueldre, Jean-Marie Paratte
Nuclear Technology | Volume 123 | Number 1 | July 1998 | Pages 21-29
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT98-A2876
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The properties of zirconia cubic solid solutions doped with yttria, erbia, and ceria or thoria are investigated with emphasis on the potential use of this material as an inert matrix for Pu incineration in a light water reactor. The material is selected on the basis of its neutronic and chemical properties; Zr and Y are not neutron absorbers. Among the rare-earth elements, Er was identified as a suitable burnable poison and was found to be the best among the rare-earth elements. The high-density cubic solid solution is stable for a rather large range of compositions and from room temperature up to ~3000 K. The selected zirconia-based material has rather low heat conductivity (~2 Wm-1K-1) compared to UO2, and the annular pellet design was consequently suggested to overcome this low-energy transfer characteristic. Samples irradiated with low- and high-energy Xe ions up to a fluence of 1.8 × 1016 Xecm-2 were investigated by transmission electron microscopy. Low-energy (60-keV) Xe ions did not produce amorphization. From the observed bubble formation, swelling values during irradiation at room temperature and at high temperature (925 K) were estimated to be 0.19 and 0.72% by volume, respectively. Furthermore, no amorphization was obtained by Xe irradiation under extreme conditions such as high-energy (1.5-MeV) Xe ion irradiation and low temperature (20 K). This confirms the robustness of this material and argues in favor of the selection of a zirconia-based material as an advanced nuclear fuel for Pu incineration.
