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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
ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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
First astatine-labeled compound shipped in the U.S.
The Department of Energy’s National Isotope Development Center (NIDC) on March 31 announced the successful long-distance shipment in the United States of a biologically active compound labeled with the medical radioisotope astatine-211 (At-211). Because previous shipments have included only the “bare” isotope, the NIDC has described the development as “unleashing medical innovation.”
P. Kar, G. Danko, J. S. Armijo, M. Misra, D. Bahrami
Nuclear Technology | Volume 155 | Number 1 | July 2006 | Pages 90-104
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management and Disposal | doi.org/10.13182/NT06-A3748
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Thermal analysis of an alternative boiling water reactor (BWR) waste package design for permanent disposal in the Yucca Mountain Repository is reported in this paper. The new design implements an increase in the holding capacity of the BWR waste packages from 44 to 52 assemblies and a modified arrangement sequence of waste packages in the emplacement drift. The design is favorable from the perspective of a generally drier emplacement drift due to an increase in heat load in the waste packages and the resulting higher temperatures. The analysis addresses heat transfer issues inside the waste package and those pertinent to satisfying the safe thermal limits for the waste package components. Key parameters in the analysis are the spent nuclear fuel assembly effective conductivities, the number of aluminum shunts, and the gap backfill with pressurized helium inside the waste packages. The feasibility of the proposed design is demonstrated by the internal waste package thermal model and the thermal-hydrologic environment in the emplacement drift. The conformity of the alternative thermal design to safe temperatures, in spite of the additional heat load, led to another innovative design with radial arrangement of assemblies in the waste packages that would further support the sustenance of drier emplacement drifts. These radial configurations are also discussed in this paper.
