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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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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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Researchers use one-of-a-kind expertise and capabilities to test fuels of tomorrow
At the Idaho National Laboratory Hot Fuel Examination Facility, containment box operator Jake Maupin moves a manipulator arm into position around a pencil-thin nuclear fuel rod. He is preparing for a procedure that he and his colleagues have practiced repeatedly in anticipation of this moment in the hot cell.
C. E. Johnson, D. C. Fee
Nuclear Technology | Volume 40 | Number 1 | August 1978 | Pages 89-97
Technical Paper | Material | doi.org/10.13182/NT78-A26702
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Oxidative attack of stainless-steel cladding in mixed uranium-plutonium oxide fast reactors may limit the life of the fuel pins. Present knowledge of cladding reactions suggests that the key factor in controlling cladding attack may be control of the oxygen potential (ΔḠ = RT ln p) by the insertion of oxygen getters within the fuel pin. Niobium, titanium, and vanadium are prime candidates as oxygen getters because they are easily oxidized at more negative oxygen potentials than the stainless-steel cladding. On the basis of predicted oxidation rates at the low oxygen pressures encountered in fuel pins, the recommended order of getter suitability is V >Nb >Ti.