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Division Spotlight
Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
Meeting Spotlight
Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
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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Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
ARPA-E announces $40 million to develop transmutation technologies for UNF
The Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) announced $40 million in funding to develop cutting-edge technologies to enable the transmutation of used nuclear fuel into less-radioactive substances. According to ARPA-E, the new initiative addresses one of the agency’s core goals as outlined by Congress: to provide transformative solutions to improve the management, cleanup, and disposal of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel.
Sara Bortot, Carlo Artioli, Marco E. Ricotti
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 61 | Number 1 | January 2012 | Pages 329-337
Modeling and Simulations | Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems | doi.org/10.13182/FST12-A13441
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A preliminary feasibility study and scope analysis for a demonstrator (demo) of the SUstainable Proliferation-resistance Enhanced Refined Secure Transportable Autonomous Reactor (SUPERSTAR) has been performed. Preliminary core design studies have been carried out focused on maximizing the power level compatibly with natural circulation cooling and transportability requirements, while meeting the foremost goals of (i) providing energy security and proliferation resistance thanks to a long life core design, (ii) minimizing the reactivity swing over the fuel lifetime, and (iii) flattening the radial power profiles, as demanded by the choice of wrapper-less fuel assemblies and by the stringent technological constraints imposed by the short-time-to-deployment feature. Once established appropriate geometrical pin and fuel assembly specifications, a suitable active height allowing the system to be cooled by free-flowing lead has finally been set through parametric T/H analyses. Fuel cycle calculations have been then performed to optimize both the fresh fuel composition and the radial enrichment zoning. Moreover, the use of several absorbing materials has been investigated in order to guarantee enhanced safety by incorporating control elements having a net density greater than that of the surrounding lead coolant. A complete static neutronic characterization of the resulting core has been finally accomplished.