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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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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Shifting the paradigm of supply chain
Chad Wolf
When I began my nuclear career, I was coached up in the nuclear energy culture of the day to “run silent, run deep,” a mindset rooted in the U.S. Navy’s submarine philosophy. That was the norm—until Fukushima.
The nuclear renaissance that many had envisioned hit a wall. The focus shifted from expansion to survival. Many utility communications efforts pivoted from silence to broadcast, showcasing nuclear energy’s elegance and reliability. Nevertheless, despite being clean baseload 24/7 power that delivered a 90 percent capacity factor or higher, nuclear energy was painted as risky and expensive (alongside energy policies and incentives that favored renewables).
Economics became a driving force threatening to shutter nuclear power. The Delivering the Nuclear Promise initiative launched in 2015 challenged the industry to sustain high performance yet cut costs by up to 30 percent.
Kyra Jantschik, Oliver Czaikowski, Helge C. Moog, Klaus Wieczorek (GRS)
Proceedings | 16th International High-Level Radioactive Waste Management Conference (IHLRWM 2017) | Charlotte, NC, April 9-13, 2017 | Pages 307-316
Cement-based salt concrete (mass concrete with crushed salt filler) and MgO (sorel) concrete are the building materials used for seals in repositories in salt formations. These structures are important elements to prevent the access of aqueous solutions to emplaced waste containments. The post-closure evolution of such cements is studied in detail at GRS in order to understand the long-term changes in their hydraulic conductivity. This includes CHM-coupled interactions between the concrete material and the host rock and formation water. This paper presents results from laboratory investigations of the sealing capacity of seal systems at laboratory scale in contact with various saline solutions.
