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Division Spotlight
Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
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!
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Latest News
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.
Emmanuelle Picard, Jean Noirot, Raymond L. Moss, Helmut Plitz, Karl Richter, Jacques Rouault
Nuclear Technology | Volume 129 | Number 1 | January 2000 | Pages 1-12
Technical Paper | Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT00-2
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An experimental program focused not only on the study of high-plutonium-content mixed-oxide fuels but also on more advanced "Pu without U" fuel concepts has been launched in the framework of the Consommation Accrue de Plutonium dans les RApides (CAPRA) project. First results of the in-pile and out-of-pile behavior of high-plutonium-content fuels with uranium, such as (U55%,Pu45%)O2, and (U55%,Pu40%,Np5%)O2, and also without uranium, such as (Pu44%,Ce56%)O2, are now available. In particular, the Irradiation à FOrt Pu (IFOP) experiment in the SILOE reactor and the TRAnsmutation and Burning of ActiNides in Triox carrier (TRABANT1) experiments in the High Flux Reactor are presented and the results are analyzed: Up to a burnup of 1.5 at.%, destructive examinations of the IFOP pin have shown that the high-plutonium-content oxide fuel with a large central hole presents the usual global behavior (good pellet integrity, fuel microstructure). The TRABANT1 oxide fuel pin with a 40% Pu and 5% Np content demonstrates that a burnup of 9.5 at.% can be reached without failure by a high-plutonium-content fuel. However, the TRABANT1 pin 1 (oxide pin with 45% Pu), which had run under severe conditions, has failed at ~7 at.% burnup. Destructive examinations of these pins will give more evidence on the causes of the failure. The low-oxygen-to-metal fuel column of (Pu,Ce)O2-x melted, thus confirming the poor conductivity of this fuel.
