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
Radiation Protection & Shielding
The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
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
Apr 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
May 2025
Latest News
Argonne’s METL gears up to test more sodium fast reactor components
Argonne National Laboratory has successfully swapped out an aging cold trap in the sodium test loop called METL (Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop), the Department of Energy announced April 23. The upgrade is the first of its kind in the United States in more than 30 years, according to the DOE, and will help test components and operations for the sodium-cooled fast reactors being developed now.
Robert A. Krakowski
Nuclear Technology | Volume 110 | Number 3 | June 1995 | Pages 295-320
Technical Paper | Actinide Burning and Transmutation Special / Nuclear Fuel Cycle | doi.org/10.13182/NT95-A35105
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A parametric systems model of the accelerator transmutation of (nuclear) waste (ATW) is used to examine key system trade-offs and design drivers on the basis of unit costs. This model is applied primarily to a fluid-fuel blanket concept for an ATW that generates net electric power from the fissioning of spent commercial reactor fuel. An important goal of this study is the development of essential parametric trade-offs to aid in any future conceptual engineering design of an ATW that would burn spent commercial fuel and generate net electric power. As such, costing procedures and methodologies used to estimate and compare advanced nuclear power generation systems are applied. Hence, the cost of electricity (COE) (in mills per kilowatt-hour) is adopted as the primary object function with which to examine parametrically key system trade-offs; other costs, such as unit cost of installed (net) power [in dollars per watt(electric)], total cost (in dollars), total lifecycle cost (in dollars), and cost of product (in dollars per kilogram) are also reported. The COE required by an electrical power-generating ATW fueled with spent commercial fuel is generally found to be above that projected for other advanced fission power plants. The accelerator and the chemical plant equipment cost accounts are quantitatively identified as main cost drivers, with the capital cost of radio-frequency power dominating the former. Significant reductions of this cost differential are possible by increased blanket neutron multiplication, increased plant capacity, or increased thermal-to-electric conversion efficiency. The benefits of reduced long-lived fission products and spent commercial fuel actinides provided by the ATW approach translate into a less tangible source of revenue to be provided by a charge that must be levied on the client fission power plants being serviced. The main goal of this study, however, is not a direct cost comparison but is instead a quantitative determination of cost-based sensitivity of key cost drivers and operational modes for an ATW concept that would address the growing spent commercial fuel problem; parametric results presented focus on this goal, and a specific ATW “straw man” is given to achieve this main objective.