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
Isotopes & Radiation
Members are devoted to applying nuclear science and engineering technologies involving isotopes, radiation applications, and associated equipment in scientific research, development, and industrial processes. Their interests lie primarily in education, industrial uses, biology, medicine, and health physics. Division committees include Analytical Applications of Isotopes and Radiation, Biology and Medicine, Radiation Applications, Radiation Sources and Detection, and Thermal Power Sources.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Jan 2025
Jul 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
February 2025
Nuclear Technology
January 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
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?
Leona Marshall Libby, M. G. Wurtele, Chris G. Whipple
Nuclear Technology | Volume 59 | Number 1 | October 1982 | Pages 85-98
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT82-A33055
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
It is technically feasible to site a retrievable but permanent surface storage facility for vitrified radioactive wastes in the northwestern Egyptian desert. Present-day commercial vitrification plants are in England and France and produce glass cylinders in the shape of an annulus, ∼9 ft high, clad in a stainless steel can, containing ∼25% of fission product and actinide oxides, weighing ∼10 tonnes, having a volume of ∼70 ft3, releasing ∼1.8 × 101 Btu heat/h. The high-level waste (HLW) glass cylinders, in lead shipping casks, are to be shipped to European ports by truck, sent to Mersa Matruh on the Egyptian coast, about ten at a time in small barges, then offloaded and sent by train a short distance inland to the site. The storage facility envisaged at the site is a concrete-walled round house with a radial crane, equipped with recanning facilities in case of breakage of stainless steel canisters, with a shop for repair of the train as needed, and with a turntable for the engine. Cooling is provided by natural air draft resulting from the canister surface temperature of ∼100°C. If needed, backup cooling is provided by equipment for forced-air drafts and by tanks of water. The canister arrangement is that produced by coaxial vertical stacking; horizontal coaxial arrangements are yet to be analyzed. The site chosen is exposed hard rock close to the Mediterranean in the northwest corner of the Egyptian desert. Groundwater is found at ∼100 m. The rainfall is ∼4 in./yr so that flash floods sometimes occur and surface drains are needed. Winds are mild and temperate. There is no recent seismicity and, judging from the horizontally bedded rock strata, has been none since the cretaceous period. There is no agriculture on the hard rock, no animal grazing, no archaeological ruins, and no present-day human occupation. There are very few indigenous plants, only those able to grow in rock cracks, and a few small animals and birds. Plume studies of the hot cooling air show no perceptible temperature rise beyond the boundaries of the reservation. Radon content of the plume, resulting from a worst-case break and devitrification of a glass cylinder, is not as large as the natural radon content of the desert air beyond the boundaries. Matters that should be more fully examined include alternative methods of solidification of HLW (such as in ceramics), more data on hydrology and meteorology, and a more detailed design of the stacking and cooling systems. Political Egyptian and international acceptability may be studied and may prove to be the most important factor in siting the proposed facility. We conclude that the northwestern Egyptian desert offers a highly promising site for international permanent and retrievable storage of the world’s vitrified radioactive waste for the necessary 500 yr. These findings are based on technical and economic considerations; institutional and political criteria were not part of this study. In a second study, four more deserts of the world were compared for suitable sites. These five deserts will be compared in a subsequent publication.
