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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Latest News
ANS joins others in seeking to discuss SNF/HLW impasse
The American Nuclear Society joined seven other organizations to send a letter to Energy Secretary Christopher Wright on July 8, asking to meet with him to discuss “the restoration of a highly functioning program to meet DOE’s legal responsibility to manage and dispose of the nation’s commercial and legacy defense spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level radioactive waste (HLW).”
M. H. Anderson, P. Meekunnasombat, M. L. Corradini
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 39 | Number 2 | March 2001 | Pages 965-969
Safety and Environment | doi.org/10.13182/FST01-A11963366
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
SnxLiy and PbxLiy eutectic alloys are being considered as liquid breeding materials for nuclear fusion applications. Thus, it is important to understand the interactions that might occur if this alloy were inadvertently to contact water. In an effort to study this interaction, experiments have been conducted with the molten alloys when impacted with a vertical 2.4 m tall column of water at 30°C. The qualitative behavior of Sn75Li25 was compared with similar impacts of other candidate molten metals, specifically a lithium-lead alloy, Pb83Li171. Multiple pressure spikes were produced with Sn and Pb, while essentially only one initial pressurization followed by a few strongly damped minor peaks were observed with the different lithium alloys. Hydrogen production from the lithium water interaction was measured and used to determine the extent of the chemical reaction. Dynamic pressure traces from the physical and chemical reactions are discussed and used to compare the energetics associated with the two different eutectics. It was found that the water/eutectic interactions of Pb83Li17 and Sn75Li25 are quite similar and significantly reduced from that of pure lithium and other reactive metals.