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Division Spotlight
Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy
The mission of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy Division (NNPD) is to promote the peaceful use of nuclear technology while simultaneously preventing the diversion and misuse of nuclear material and technology through appropriate safeguards and security, and promotion of nuclear nonproliferation policies. To achieve this mission, the objectives of the NNPD are to: Promote policy that discourages the proliferation of nuclear technology and material to inappropriate entities. Provide information to ANS members, the technical community at large, opinion leaders, and decision makers to improve their understanding of nuclear nonproliferation issues. Become a recognized technical resource on nuclear nonproliferation, safeguards, and security issues. Serve as the integration and coordination body for nuclear nonproliferation activities for the ANS. Work cooperatively with other ANS divisions to achieve these objective nonproliferation policies.
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!
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Latest News
TerraPower begins U.K. regulatory approval process
Seattle-based TerraPower signaled its interest this week in building its Natrium small modular reactor in the United Kingdom, the company announced.
TerraPower sent a letter to the U.K.’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, formally establishing its intention to enter the U.K. generic design assessment (GDA) process. This is TerraPower’s first step in deployment of its Natrium technology—a 345-MW sodium fast reactor coupled with a molten salt energy storage unit—on the international stage.
Takatoshi Hijikata, Masahiro Sakata, Hajime Miyashiro, Kensuke Kinoshita, Tatsuhiro Higashi, Tadaharu Tamai
Nuclear Technology | Volume 115 | Number 1 | July 1996 | Pages 114-121
Technical Note | Enrichment and Reprocessing System | doi.org/10.13182/NT96-A35280
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
High-level radioactive waste (HLW) from reprocessing (Purex) light water reactor spent fuel contains a small number of long-lived nuclides, mainly actinide elements, having half-lives of longer than one million years. If actinide elements could be separated from HLW and transmuted to short-lived nuclides, not only would waste management be much simpler but also public support for nuclear power generation might be easier to obtain. Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI), Japan, has proposed a pyrometallurgical process to separate actinides from HLW. When the solvent used in the Purex process is reclaimed by NaCO3 and NaOH, a waste stream containing sodium with fission products and actinides is produced also. The focus of CRIEPI is the disposal of HLW from both the Purex and the solvent rinse processes. In this concept, HLW is converted to chlorides, the actinides as molten chlorides are reduced by lithium metal and extracted into liquid cadmium, and finally, the actinides are purified by electrorefining. However, in the extraction of actinides into liquid cadmium, some of the rare earth elements are expected to be recovered together with the actinides because of their chemical similarity. Thus, it is necessary to obtain thermodynamic data of the actinides and rare earth elements in molten chlorides and liquid cadmium. The distribution coefficients for uranium, neptunium, and rare earth elements are determined in molten LiCl-KCl eutectic salt/liquid cadmium (LiCl-KCl system) and molten LiCl-NaCl salt/liquid cadmium (LiCl-NaCl system) systems. The equilibrium distribution of uranium, neptunium, and rare earth elements is also calculated based on the Gibbs energies of formation of the metal chlorides and their activity coefficients in molten salts and cadmium.