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Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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General Kenneth Nichols and the Manhattan Project
Nichols
The Oak Ridger has published the latest in a series of articles about General Kenneth D. Nichols, the Manhattan Project, and the 1954 Atomic Energy Act. The series has been produced by Nichols’ grandniece Barbara Rogers Scollin and Oak Ridge (Tenn.) city historian David Ray Smith. Gen. Nichols (1907–2000) was the district engineer for the Manhattan Engineer District during the Manhattan Project.
As Smith and Scollin explain, Nichols “had supervision of the research and development connected with, and the design, construction, and operation of, all plants required to produce plutonium-239 and uranium-235, including the construction of the towns of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Richland, Washington. The responsibility of his position was massive as he oversaw a workforce of both military and civilian personnel of approximately 125,000; his Oak Ridge office became the center of the wartime atomic energy’s activities.”
J. J. Jarrell, R. A. Joseph III, R. M. Cumberland, G. M. Petersen (ORNL), E. A. Kalinina (SNL)
Proceedings | 16th International High-Level Radioactive Waste Management Conference (IHLRWM 2017) | Charlotte, NC, April 9-13, 2017 | Pages 639-646
The potential development and deployment of a standardized canister system represents an opportunity for an integrated approach to address the storage, transportation, and disposal issues in an integrated waste management system (IWMS). However, this deployment has the potential for significant system-wide impacts regardless of timing and method of implementation. This paper describes an evaluation that investigates using standardized, triple-purpose (storage, transportation, and disposal) canisters within the IWMS. Specifically, this evaluation documents a quantitative comparison of the impacts of implementing standardized canisters against the status quo of continuing to load existing canisters that could be challenging to dispose of in a number of different geologic repository concepts being considered by the US Department of Energy. This evaluation focuses on spent nuclear fuel that (1) would be loaded into standardized canister systems at reactors or (2) would be transported to an interim storage facility in reusable, bolted-lid transportation casks and subsequently loaded into standardized canister systems. Specifically, the evaluation builds on previous work to gain a better understanding of (1) the impacts of leaving spent fuel pools open for extended periods of time to facilitate access to the fuel and (2) how updated concepts of packaging for disposal and associated costs impact the system-wide evaluation.
For all standardized canister scenarios analyzed, the following observations can be drawn from this evaluation:
(1) Beginning to load standardized canisters either before or when a repository concept is selected would reduce the total life cycle cost of the system by between 1% and 7% when compared with the current “business as usual” approach of continuing to load large, dual-purpose canisters (DPCs), assuming that disposal of DPCs is determined to be unfeasible.