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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
Standards Program
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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Deep Space: The new frontier of radiation controls
In commercial nuclear power, there has always been a deliberate tension between the regulator and the utility owner. The regulator fundamentally exists to protect the worker, and the utility, to make a profit. It is a win-win balance.
From the U.S. nuclear industry has emerged a brilliantly successful occupational nuclear safety record—largely the result of an ALARA (as low as reasonably achievable) process that has driven exposure rates down to what only a decade ago would have been considered unthinkable. In the U.S. nuclear industry, the system has accomplished an excellent, nearly seamless process that succeeds to the benefit of both employee and utility owner.
J. R. Fagan, J. O. Mingle
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 18 | Number 4 | April 1964 | Pages 443-447
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE64-A18762
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The standard analytical approaches to calculating the maximum temperature and surface -heat-flow rate in nuclear reactor fuel plates over-estimates both of these quantities due to the omission of conduction along the axis of the plate. The more general problem, including axial conduction, has been solved for fuel plates in which the clad and meat can be assumed to have the same thermal properties. Calculations made for a natural-circulation reactor show over-estimates of the maximum surface heat flow rate of 4.5 percent and of the maximum temperature rise of 4.8 percent. The error is minimized for systems having a large convection heat-transfer coefficient and will be less than 0.5 percent for most power reactor systems.
