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Robotics & Remote Systems
The Mission of the Robotics and Remote Systems Division is to promote the development and application of immersive simulation, robotics, and remote systems for hazardous environments for the purpose of reducing hazardous exposure to individuals, reducing environmental hazards and reducing the cost of performing work.
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2024 ANS Winter Conference and Expo
November 17–21, 2024
Orlando, FL|Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld
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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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Nuclear new build procurement considerations
It may seem counterintuitive, but the best time to enhance the ability to support operations and maintenance for a new plant is before construction starts. This is one of many lessons learned by the currently operating nuclear fleet. As construction and startup of many nuclear facilities was completed, it quickly became evident that the ability to efficiently support operations and maintenance was limited. Most of the information necessary to establish and manage procurement of spare and replacement items, maintenance, and configuration of the facilities was unavailable and had to be gathered on a case-by-case, “on-demand” basis. Absence of necessary information and the associated challenges resulted in the need for staff augmentation and multiyear-long projects to develop equipment bills of material and maintenance programs and to perform technical evaluations for the huge quantities of spare and replacement items being requested.
Caishan Jiao, Hao Wang, Yaorui Li, Meng Zhang, Yang Gao, Mingjian He
Nuclear Technology | Volume 208 | Number 12 | December 2022 | Pages 1858-1866
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2022.2081483
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
With the rapid development of nuclear power, increasing attention has been paid to the treatment of low-level radioactive wastewater (LLRW). In this study, reverse osmosis (RO) and membrane distillation (MD) are used to treat LLRW containing Ce(III), U(VI), and Co(II). RO was used for the purification of LLRW. MD was used for further concentration of RO concentrate. The effect of the operating parameters, including operating pressure (0.6 to 1.4 MPa), feed pH (7 to 9), feed concentration (2 to 10 mg/L), feed temperature (50°C to 90°C), and feed flow rate (80 to 160 L/h) on the permeate flux and the rejection rate of the RO process and MD process was studied. The results demonstrate that it is very effective to use the RO process to treat LLRW containing Ce(III), U(VI), and Co(II), with the rejection rates of Ce(III), U(VI), and Co(II) higher than 99.97%, 99.98%, and 99.35%, respectively. The operating pressure has a significant effect on the permeate flux in the RO process. The permeate flux increases from 9.84 to 23.03 L/m2·h when the operating pressure increases from 0.6 to 1.4 MPa. The feed pH has an apparent influence on nuclide rejection. At the feed pH = 9, the rejection rates of Ce(III), U(VI), and Co(II) by the RO process can reach 99.99%, 99.99%, and 99.79%, respectively. MD can reject almost all the nuclides in the RO concentrate, with rejection rates consistently higher than 99.98%. Increasing the feed temperature and feed flow rate can result in a significant increase in the permeate flux, but has almost no effect on nuclide rejection in the MD process.