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Division Spotlight
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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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.
Won Sik Yang, Hussein S. Khalil
Nuclear Technology | Volume 135 | Number 2 | August 2001 | Pages 162-182
Technical Paper | Accelerators | doi.org/10.13182/NT135-162
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The results of blanket design studies for a lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE)-cooled accelerator transmutation of waste system are presented. These studies focused primarily on achieving two important and somewhat contradictory performance objectives: First, maximizing discharge burnup, so as to minimize the number of successive recycle stages and associated recycle losses, and second, minimizing burnup reactivity loss over an operating cycle, to minimize reduction of source multiplication with burnup. The blanket is assumed to be fueled with a nonuranium metallic dispersion fuel; pyrochemical techniques are used for recycle of residual transuranic (TRU) actinides in this fuel after irradiation. The key system objective of high-discharge burnup is shown to be achievable in a configuration with comparatively high power density and relatively low burnup reactivity loss. System design and operating characteristics that satisfy these goals while meeting key thermal-hydraulic and materials-related design constraints have been preliminarily developed. Results of the performance evaluations indicate that an average discharge burnup of ~27% is achieved with a ~3.5-yr fuel residence time. Reactivity loss over the half-year cycle is 5.3%k. The peak fast fluence value at discharge, the TRU fraction in the charged fuel, and the peak coolant velocity are well within the assumed design limits. Owing to its use of nonuranium fuel, this proposed LBE-cooled system can consume light water reactor-discharge TRUs at the maximum rate achievable per unit of fission energy produced (~1.0 g/MWd).