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Aalo Atomics discusses the road ahead
Arafat
Yasir Arafat, president and chief technology officer of Aalo Atomics, participated in the first day of sessions at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s annual Regulatory Information Conference (RIC). There, he recapped some of the company’s recent milestones and revealed new details on what lies ahead for Aalo.
His attendance at the event coincided with a number of announcements in the past two weeks. Those announcements covered new contracts with Global Nuclear Fuel and Baker Hughes, the release of a new strategic roadmap, the completion of fuel enrichment by Urenco USA, and a new approval from the Department of Energy.
Kyoung O. Lee, Robin P. Gardner
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 174 | Number 3 | July 2013 | Pages 264-285
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE12-23
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Pebble motions in pebble-bed reactors (PBRs) have been investigated by generating pebble motion histories with Monte Carlo molecular dynamics simulations. This extension of molecular dynamics to PBR-sized pebble motion is accomplished by splitting the simulation into two parts. The first part simulates the dropping of pebbles into the PBR with a closed exit that allows one to obtain the correct initial placement of all pebbles within the pebble bed. The second part simulates what happens when the PBR exit is opened and normal pebble flow begins. Using this combined approach the pebble piling up and subsequent discharge are predicted. Simulations have been conducted with this approach by monitoring the mass flow rate, the pebble piling up, and the subsequent discharge for a range of pertinent parameters using the Hertz-Mindlin force for pebble interactions. The simulation output data include the force, velocity, and position of the pebbles as a function of time. Note that arching or locked flow, a very important phenomenon, is predicted by this approach under certain operating conditions. Using this approach, PBR results (including arching) for a range of the parameters of interest are reported and are discussed herein.