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Division Spotlight
Nuclear Criticality Safety
NCSD provides communication among nuclear criticality safety professionals through the development of standards, the evolution of training methods and materials, the presentation of technical data and procedures, and the creation of specialty publications. In these ways, the division furthers the exchange of technical information on nuclear criticality safety with the ultimate goal of promoting the safe handling of fissionable materials outside reactors.
Meeting Spotlight
Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
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
ARPA-E announces $40 million to develop transmutation technologies for UNF
The Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) announced $40 million in funding to develop cutting-edge technologies to enable the transmutation of used nuclear fuel into less-radioactive substances. According to ARPA-E, the new initiative addresses one of the agency’s core goals as outlined by Congress: to provide transformative solutions to improve the management, cleanup, and disposal of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel.
Sang Ji Kim, Pham Nhu Viet Ha, Jae Yong Lim
Nuclear Technology | Volume 194 | Number 3 | June 2016 | Pages 340-352
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NT15-53
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An advanced sodium-cooled fast reactor concept has been developed in Korea for transuranics (TRU) transmutation with an electricity output of 600 MW(electric) (called the KALIMER-600 TRU burner). The core design philosophy is primarily based on passive safety mechanisms to meet the Generation IV technology goals. Accordingly, metal fuel has been adopted to enhance its inherent passive safety characteristics. The charged fuel in a ternary metal alloy (U-TRU-Zr) consists of self-recycled TRU and TRU recovered from the spent nuclear fuels of current light water reactors through a pyro-metallurgical process, which is assumed to carry over 5% of the inventory of rare earth (RE) elements. It has been recognized that an additional amount of RE in the fuel would decrease the material attractiveness of the charged fuel with respect to proliferation resistance and physical protection (PR&PP). However, this may raise concerns because most of the reactor physics parameters will tend to negatively affect the passive safety features encoded in the original core concept. Thus, this study investigates the impact of the RE recovery fraction on the core physics performance and important safety parameters such as Doppler coefficients and sodium void reactivity. The results are expected to help provide guidance regarding the development of limiting conditions for RE contents to recycling technology flow sheet developers and ternary metal fuel developers, and to provide insight into optimizing the core passive safety characteristics under accident conditions should a significant amount of RE be needed to enhance PR&PP.