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Division Spotlight
Radiation Protection & Shielding
The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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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Become a knowledge manager at UWC 2024
The American Nuclear Society is now accepting applications for knowledge managers to work during the 2024 Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo. This year’s UWC, “Nuclear Momentum: Advancing Our Clean Energy Future,” will be held August 4–7, 2024, at the JW Marriott Marco Island Beach Resort on Marco Island, Fla.=
W. Van Snyder
Nuclear Technology | Volume 208 | Number 9 | September 2022 | Pages 1416-1432
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2021.2024023
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A new form for metallic nuclear reactor fuel is proposed consisting of finely divided particles (tens of micrometers) mixed with sodium for thermal bond. Fuel pins filled with this form of fuel would have greater fuel density than with solid slugs fabricated at 75% smear density. Greater fuel density reduces enrichment requirements for initial fuel loading. A larger surface-to-volume ratio allows more fission product gases and metallic fission products to diffuse out of fuel particles, resulting in less swelling, greater burnup before processing, and simple preliminary thermomechanical spent fuel processing steps that might be used several times before the more expensive pyroelectric process develolped for the Experimental Breeder Reactor II (EBR-II). Less frequent pyroelectric processing, simple preliminary processing, and a larger surface-to-volume ratio reduce total processing cost. Preliminary processing produces separate fission products, in particular cesium and strontium, in metallic rather than salt or mineral form, thereby simplifying and reducing storage cost. Intrinsically structurally weak fuel would not rupture fuel pin cladding by swelling. The expense and complexity of the process would be offset by reduced total system cost.