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
Nuclear Installations Safety
Devoted specifically to the safety of nuclear installations and the health and safety of the public, this division seeks a better understanding of the role of safety in the design, construction and operation of nuclear installation facilities. The division also promotes engineering and scientific technology advancement associated with the safety of such facilities.
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
General Kenneth Nichols and the Manhattan Project
Nichols
The Oak Ridger has published the latest in a series of articles about General Kenneth D. Nichols, the Manhattan Project, and the 1954 Atomic Energy Act. The series has been produced by Nichols’ grandniece Barbara Rogers Scollin and Oak Ridge (Tenn.) city historian David Ray Smith. Gen. Nichols (1907–2000) was the district engineer for the Manhattan Engineer District during the Manhattan Project.
As Smith and Scollin explain, Nichols “had supervision of the research and development connected with, and the design, construction, and operation of, all plants required to produce plutonium-239 and uranium-235, including the construction of the towns of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Richland, Washington. The responsibility of his position was massive as he oversaw a workforce of both military and civilian personnel of approximately 125,000; his Oak Ridge office became the center of the wartime atomic energy’s activities.”
Sol-Il Su, Man-Sung Yim
Nuclear Technology | Volume 130 | Number 1 | April 2000 | Pages 71-88
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management and Disposal | doi.org/10.13182/NT00-A3078
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Ion-exchange resins represent one of the most important waste streams in low-level waste management due to the unstabilized nature of the waste form and the large amount of radioactivity contained. To describe the release of radionuclides from ion-exchange resins stored in a disposal facility, a mechanistic release model was developed. The model is based on description of radionuclide migration both in the resin bead phase and the bulk pore water phase within waste containers. This modeling setup provides the capability to describe all the major physical processes taking place for the release of radionuclides. Because of the difficulty in obtaining analytical solutions, the numerical solution approach was employed in this model.The new resin release model was used to examine key processes and parameters in describing radionuclide release. These were found to be diffusion within the bulk pore water phase, flow rate of infiltrating leachant water, concentration of counterions of the leachant water, and sorption during the transport in the bulk pore water phase. Some parameters were found to have little impact in describing the release. These include the interdiffusion coefficient within resin beads and the density and radius of resin beads. Existing simplified modeling approaches were also compared with the new resin release model, and validities of using these simplified models are discussed.