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The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
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Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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Norway’s Halden reactor takes first step toward decommissioning
The government of Norway has granted the transfer of the Halden research reactor from the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) to the state agency Norwegian Nuclear Decommissioning (NND). The 25-MWt Halden boiling water reactor operated from 1958 to 2018 and was used in the research of nuclear fuel, reactor internals, plant procedures and monitoring, and human factors.
Shih-Hai Li, Hui-Ting Yang, Chun-Ping Jen
Nuclear Technology | Volume 148 | Number 3 | December 2004 | Pages 358-368
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management and Disposal | doi.org/10.13182/NT04-A3573
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Performance assessments of high-level radioactive waste disposal have emphasized the role of colloids in the migration of radionuclides in the geosphere. The transport of colloids often brings them in contact with fracture surfaces or porous rock matrix. Colloids that attach to these surfaces are treated as being immobile and are called filtered colloids. The filtered colloids could be released into the fracture again; that is, the attachment of colloids may be reversible. Also, the colloids in the fracture could diffuse into the porous matrix rock. A methodology is proposed to evaluate a predictive model to assess transport within the fractured rock as well as various phenomenological coefficients employed in the different mechanisms, such as filtration, remobilization, and matrix diffusion of colloids. The governing equations of colloids considering mechanisms of the colloidal transport in the fractured media, including filtration, remobilization, and matrix diffusion, have been modeled and solved analytically in previous studies. In the present study, transport equations of colloids and radionuclides that consider the combination of the aforementioned transport mechanisms have also been solved numerically and investigated. The total concentration of mobile radionuclides in the fracture becomes lower because the concentration of mobile colloids in the fracture decreases when the filtration coefficient for colloids increases. Additionally, the concentration of mobile radionuclides was increased at any given time step due to the higher sorption partition coefficient of radionuclides associated with colloids. The results also show that the concentration of radionuclides in the fracture zone decreases when the remobilization coefficient of colloids or the percentages of the matrix diffusion flux of colloids increase.