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Division Spotlight
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.”
Yoshiyuki Asaoka, Kunihiko Okano, Tomoaki Yoshida, Ken Tomabechi, Yuichi Ogawa, Naoto Sekimura, Yuzo Fukai, Akiyoshi Hatayama, Nobuyuki Inoue, Akira Kohyama, Sei-Ichiro Yamazaki, Seiji Mori
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 34 | Number 3 | November 1998 | Pages 863-867
Fusion Blanket and Shield Technology (Poster Session) | doi.org/10.13182/FST98-A11963720
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The possibility of developing a cost competitive fusion power plant with a water-cooled blanket concept, which has much experience in nuclear power plants, was examined. The new blanket design is based on using reduced activation ferritic steel components and an advanced super-heated steam cycle which is used to realize high thermal efficiency. The high value of thermal efficiency is very effective in reducing the cost of electricity.
The allowable temperature range of the structure material, reduced activation ferritic steel, is assumed to be 350K to 900K based on expectations from the material research and development program. A mixture of lithium oxide pebbles and beryllium pebbles is installed in the breeding zone for high tritium breeding ratio and high thermal conductivity. Mixture ratio of beryllium and lithium-6 enrichment were optimized from the viewpoint of temperature distribution in the breeding zone, achievable tritium breeding ratio and its reduction due to burn up. The reference blanket system has a local tritium breeding ratio of 1.37. The arrangement of cooling channels in the breeding zones and flow rate and inlet temperature of the coolant were also optimized to keep the temperatures of structure materials, breeding materials and coolant in the allowable range. The first wall is cooled by pressurized water at about 570 K. The coolant out of the first wall is led to the breeding zone and starts to boil. The steam is super-heated up to 750 K in the blanket. This high temperature raises the thermal efficiency of the turbine to 41 %.