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
Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
Meeting Spotlight
Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
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
Jul 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
August 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
BWXT will scout potential TRISO fuel production sites in Wyoming
BWX Technologies Inc. announced today that its Advanced Technologies subsidiary has signed a cooperation agreement with the state of Wyoming to evaluate locations and requirements for siting a potential new TRISO nuclear fuel fabrication facility in the state.
P. A. Tempest
Nuclear Technology | Volume 52 | Number 3 | March 1981 | Pages 415-425
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT81-A32715
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
High-level liquid radioactive waste contains ∼40 different elements and, in time, many of these elements are transformed by radioactive decay into different-sized atoms with new chemical properties. Accommodation of this range of elements in a solid form can be achieved by vitrification because of the geometrical flexibility afforded by unordered glass structures. Crystalline minerals, on the other hand, can only accommodate atoms of specific size and valency and a complex mineral mixture is required to accommodate all the waste elements initially. The detrimental effects of transmutation on a fully crystalline solid raises doubts about the ability of synthetic minerals to immobilize waste elements in a stable structure for a safe period of time. While the vitrification process exploits the metastable (glassy) state, devitrification, if it occurs, introduces an ordering similar to that encountered in crystalline minerals.