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Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
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Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
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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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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Vogtle-3 shuts down for valve issue
One of the new Vogtle units in Georgia was shut down unexpectedly on Monday last week for a valve issue that has since been investigated and repaired. According to multiple local news outlets, Georgia Power reported on July 17 that Unit 3 was back in service.
Southern Company spokesperson Jacob Hawkins confirmed that Vogtle-3 went off line at 9:25 p.m. local time on July 8 “due to lowering water levels in the steam generators caused by a valve issue on one of the three main feedwater pumps.”
G. Modica, R.A.H. Edwards
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 27 | Number 2 | March 1995 | Pages 75-78
doi.org/10.13182/FST95-A11963808
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Tritiated water (Q2O) is produced during fusion fuel purification or air detritiation. Before recovering the tritium by isotope separation, the Q2O needs to be reduced to form Q2 gas. The reduction of tritiated water on iron is an alternative to electrolysis and gas-shift reactors. It allows a simple, compact, configuration with low tritium inventory. The reactor design incorporates a palladium alloy permeator which extracts the Q2.
Tests on a commercial iron-based catalyst showed a high reactivity and no degradation with repeated cycling. The optimum temperature for water reduction was 375–395 C, and for iron regeneration using hydrogen, 470–495 C. The first prototype reactor-permeator decomposed 9.5 g water in 8 hrs using 210 g iron. The time needed for iron regeneration was reduced to 16 hrs by recirculating the hydrogen. A pilot-scale reactor permeator is now under development: it should be capable of reducing 35 kg of water per year, operating at 1 bar. Attention to the choice of structural materials will minimise tritium carryover into the water produced during regeneration.