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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
Conference on Nuclear Training and Education: A Biennial International Forum (CONTE 2025)
February 3–6, 2025
Amelia Island, FL|Omni Amelia Island Resort
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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February 2025
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Reboot: Nuclear needs a success . . . anywhere
The media have gleefully resurrected the language of a past nuclear renaissance. Beyond the hype and PR, many people in the nuclear community are taking a more measured view of conditions that could lead to new construction: data center demand, the proliferation of new reactor designs and start-ups, and the sudden ascendance of nuclear energy as the power source everyone wants—or wants to talk about.
Once built, large nuclear reactors can provide clean power for at least 80 years—outlasting 10 to 20 presidential administrations. Smaller reactors can provide heat and power outputs tailored to an end user’s needs. With all the new attention, are we any closer to getting past persistent supply chain and workforce issues and building these new plants? And what will the election of Donald Trump to a second term as president mean for nuclear?
As usual, there are more questions than answers, and most come down to money. Several developers are engaging with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or have already applied for a license, certification, or permit. But designs without paying customers won’t get built. So where are the customers, and what will it take for them to commit?
Hermann J. Möckel, Rainer H. Köster
Nuclear Technology | Volume 59 | Number 3 | December 1982 | Pages 494-497
Technical Paper | The Backfill as an Engineered Barrier for Radioactive Waste Management / Radioactive Waste Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT82-A33007
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Portland cement stone samples simulating solidified active waste were 60Co-gamma-irradiated with doses up to 108 rad. The radiolytically produced gases were determined using a gas chromatographic technique. Various additives chemically comparable to actual low- and intermediate-level wastes were incorporated in the cement mixtures. Also the influence of the presence of oxygen during the irradiation was investigated. In no case could or NOx (from the decomposition of nitrate) be detected. In nitrate-free samples, only H2 is produced. The H2 yield ranges between 3 and 8 ml of H2 per kilogram of cement stone and per megarad radiation applied. It depends on the water content and the aging time of the samples; an influence of the concrete fluidizer content was not observed. The presence of nitrate in the samples gives rise to the production of O2 besides H2 and an overall decrease of the gas yield.
