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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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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ANS joins others in seeking to discuss SNF/HLW impasse
The American Nuclear Society joined seven other organizations to send a letter to Energy Secretary Christopher Wright on July 8, asking to meet with him to discuss “the restoration of a highly functioning program to meet DOE’s legal responsibility to manage and dispose of the nation’s commercial and legacy defense spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level radioactive waste (HLW).”
R. W. Taylor
Nuclear Technology | Volume 18 | Number 2 | May 1973 | Pages 185-193
Technical Paper | A Review of Plutonium Utilization in Thermal Reactors / Nuclear Explosive | doi.org/10.13182/NT73-A31287
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Most of the energy of an underground nuclear explosion is deposited near the site of the explosion as heat. The heat remains localized for a long time because of the low thermal conductivity of rock. This heat plays a role in Plowshare applications by generating steam and, in the case of carbonate-bearing rocks, CO2. Applications to stimulate natural-gas production are complicated by the production of tritiated steam and CO2. The temperature of the rubble in the chimney fixes the steam partial pressure in the produced gas. Increasing chimney temperature, and thus steam pressure, is expected with increasing depth of explosion and also with decreasing spacing between detonations, in the case of multiple explosions. Laboratory experiments on shales that are mostly fine grain mixtures of quartz and carbonate show that CO2 is released at temperatures as low as 500°C, even under a CO2 pressure of 50 atm. In the future, the release of large amounts of CO2 may be used to advantage in secondary oil recovery and in the recovery of heavy crude oils, because of the great reduction in viscosity that results as CO2 dissolves in these oils. The nuclear chimney, with its large void volume, large surface area for catalysis, and high temperatures, is a potential high pressure vessel for chemical reaction.