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Decommissioning & Environmental Sciences
The mission of the Decommissioning and Environmental Sciences (DES) Division is to promote the development and use of those skills and technologies associated with the use of nuclear energy and the optimal management and stewardship of the environment, sustainable development, decommissioning, remediation, reutilization, and long-term surveillance and maintenance of nuclear-related installations, and sites. The target audience for this effort is the membership of the Division, the Society, and the public at large.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
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Latest News
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.
Michael Nishimura, Yu Liu, Liqian Li, Karen Colins
Nuclear Technology | Volume 195 | Number 2 | August 2016 | Pages 169-180
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NT15-159
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
With the advancement of computer and communication technologies, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are increasingly used in nuclear and space applications, both of which may require operation in a high-intensity radiation environment. Gamma rays’ damaging mechanisms in semiconductor devices are described as, and specifically linked to, semiconductor property changes in detectors, transistors, and integrated circuits. Radiation damage is cumulative and can result in the premature failure of WSN nodes. Failed WSN nodes decrease the quality of service of the entire WSN and then delay immediate response to severe accidents. This paper focuses on evaluating the performance of WSN routing protocols in a gamma-ray radiation environment. The probability density function of a Weibull distribution was used to model failures of individual nodes in simulated WSNs. The distribution parameters are based on results of radiation damage tests performed on semiconductor devices in the Gamma-220 facility (60Co source) at the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories. Simulation of the routing protocols [LEACH (Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy), LEACH-C (LEACH-Centralized), Stat-Clus (Static Clustering), MTE (Minimum Transmission Energy), and PEGASIS (Power-Efficient Gathering in Sensor Information Systems)] through NS2 (Network Simulator 2) and the resulting performance analyses could provide useful design insights and considerations for nuclear and space applications. The performance of WSN routing protocols is evaluated for the first time in a gamma-ray radiation environment for nuclear and space applications.
