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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
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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
El Salvador: Looking to nuclear
In 2022, El Salvador’s leadership decided to expand its modest, mostly hydro- and geothermal-based electricity system, which is supported by expensive imported natural gas and diesel generation. They chose to use advanced nuclear reactors, preferably fueled by thorium-based fuels, to power their civilian efforts. The choice of thorium was made to inform the world that the reactor program was for civilian purposes only, and so they chose a fuel that was plentiful, easy to source and work with, and not a proliferation risk.
Sayed A. El-Mongy, Kh. A. Allam
Nuclear Technology | Volume 205 | Number 11 | November 2019 | Pages 1474-1479
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2019.1593012
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Precise assay of uranium enrichment without time-consuming analysis is a crucial factor in nuclear safeguards process. This paper aims at a computational development using innovative Monte Carlo (MC) method for 235U mass enrichment (%E) verification for the UF6 cylinder. This new approach focuses mainly on using different UF6 physical properties (effective volume and density) and extra 235U gamma- and X-ray transitions as input parameters for efficient calculations of %E assay. In this work, we used the measured values of the dose rate (μSv/h) due to the emitted gamma- and X-rays of 235U content at the cylinder external surface for enrichment calculations. The attenuation of the main 235U gamma- and X-energies due to the cylinder wall (5B-Type Ni Inconel alloy) was also estimated to wide range of energies using XCOM: Photon Cross Sections Database software. Using this suggested model for 235U enrichment calculation, the calculated value of 19.46 ± 1.28% is within one standard deviation of the certified value of 19.75 ± 0.40%. The mass of 235U was also estimated and found to be 2.6814 kg. Based on this improved approach, the total uranium activity of the investigated UF6 cylinder was calculated and found to be (5.52 GBq), which is 98.6% from the declared activity value (5.6 GBq). These accurate and confident calculated values are direct functions in the improved parameters and the developed MC code.
