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Division Spotlight
Education, Training & Workforce Development
The Education, Training & Workforce Development Division provides communication among the academic, industrial, and governmental communities through the exchange of views and information on matters related to education, training and workforce development in nuclear and radiological science, engineering, and technology. Industry leaders, education and training professionals, and interested students work together through Society-sponsored meetings and publications, to enrich their professional development, to educate the general public, and to advance nuclear and radiological science and engineering.
Meeting Spotlight
2027 ANS Winter Conference and Expo
October 31–November 4, 2027
Washington, DC|The Westin Washington, DC Downtown
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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Disney World should have gone nuclear
There is extra significance to the American Nuclear Society holding its annual meeting in Orlando, Florida, this past week. That’s because in 1967, the state of Florida passed a law allowing Disney World to build a nuclear power plant.
Thiago H. da Silva, Drew Butler, Austin Biaggne, Nirmala Kandadai, Harish Subbaraman (Boise State Univ), Joshua Daw (INL), Lan Li (Boise State Univ/Center for Advanced Energy Studies)
Proceedings | Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technolgies (NPIC&HMIT 2019) | Orlando, FL, February 9-14, 2019 | Pages 448-458
Density functional theory-based calculations and ab-initio molecular dynamics have been performed in order to study the effects of dopants and radiation defects on the structures and optical properties of amorphous silica in comparison to sapphire – another high-temperature and radiation-resistant material. Out studies focused on oxygen deficient centers ODCs (a typical point defect due to radiation damage) and fluorine F dopants. Optical properties depend on dielectric function, calculated from the charge density of the material. With real- and imaginary-part dielectric functions, all the other optical properties, such as refractive index, energy loss function, and absorption coefficient, could be derived. Optical properties of amorphous silica and sapphire become anisotropic with either ODC or F dopants. They contribute characteristic peaks to the optical spectra and induce minor peaks in the low photon energy ranges. Static optical coefficients significantly increase with F dopants, but they might remain or slightly increase with ODC. Our results suggest that adding dopants can improve the optical properties of the materials and potentially inhabit the formation of high-temperature and radiation defects, resulting in an enhancement of the light signal in their transmitted spectra. Controlling dopant concentration also plays a crucial role, because a high dopant concentration could cause a structural distortion and degrade the optical performance of the material.