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November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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A wave of new U.S.-U.K. deals ahead of Trump’s state visit
President Trump will arrive in the United Kingdom this week for a state visit that promises to include the usual pomp and ceremony alongside the signing of a landmark new agreement on U.S.-U.K. nuclear collaboration.
E. R. Gilbert, R. P. Allen, D. L. Baldwin, R. D. Bell, J. L. Brimhall, R. G. Clemmer, S. C. Marschman, M. A. McKinnon, R. E. Page, H. G. Powers, S. G. Chalk
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 21 | Number 2 | March 1992 | Pages 739-744
Material Properties | doi.org/10.13182/FST92-A29836
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
To verify the performance of permeation-resistant cladding for tritium targets designed for a New Production Reactor Light-Water Reactor, a tritium test facility was designed, developed, fabricated, and certified. Testing is ongoing to verify the performance of reference-designed targets. Accurate measurements were taken of tritium permeating from barrier-coated cladding specimens immersed in high-temperature autoclaves configured to simulate reactor coolant conditions. The tritium test pressure is controlled by heating a zirconium-alloy getter, previously charged with tritium, to a temperature that corresponds to a specified test pressure. The apparatus for testing deuterium permeation was developed to calibrate nondestructive testing procedures for evaluating barrier quality and to screen defective industrial cladding. These permeation testing facilities perform parametric tests to evaluate the sensitivity of permeation to temperature, time, pressure, fabrication variables, barrier disparities, corrosion, and other factors. The experimental activities characterize the performance and material properties of target rod components as well as validate new nondestructive examination methods that measure target rod quality. The target rod components are 1) barrier-coated stainless steel cladding, 2) lithium aluminate pellets, 3) nickel-plated Zircaloy-4 getters, and 4) zirconium liners. In addition, data generated from statistical testing provide increased confidence in current analytical models that predict target rod performance during both steady state and calculated transient conditions. The test results indicate that the tritium release from a full core of NPR-LWR targets will satisfy design requirements for release of no more than 20,000 Ci of tritium to the reactor coolant, even with four failed target rods that release up to 50% of their inventory.