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2026 Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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What’s the most difficult question you’ve been asked as a maintenance instructor?
Blye Widmar
"Where are the prints?!"
This was the final question in an onslaught of verbal feedback, comments, and critiques I received from my students back in 2019. I had two years of instructor experience and was teaching a class that had been meticulously rehearsed in preparation for an accreditation visit. I knew the training material well and transferred that knowledge effectively enough for all the students to pass the class. As we wrapped up, I asked the students how they felt about my first big system-level class, and they did not hold back.
“Why was the exam from memory when we don’t work from memory in the plant?” “Why didn’t we refer to the vendor documents?” “Why didn’t we practice more on the mock-up?” And so on.
A. W. Cronenberg, H. K. Fauske, D. T. Eggen
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 50 | Number 1 | January 1973 | Pages 53-62
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE73-A22588
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
As part of the liquid-metal fast breeder reactor (LMFBR) safety program, the consequences of a hypothetical molten-fuel release into sodium coolant following fuel pin failure(s) must be evaluated, in order that design constraints can be established to maximize the safety and minimize the economical penalties of such an event. This work represents the first attempt to interpret the voiding rates obtained from an in-pile, fuel-failure experiment in the TREAT reactor in terms of a molten fuel-coolant interaction. Results indicate that it is not only possible to reduce in-pile data to a workable form, but also to obtain representation of loop conditions for simple geometries. The analysis has been successful in reproducing the experimental voiding history in a selected TREAT experiment. It is further shown that the formation of condensate at cold boundaries significantly reduces the amount of energy imparted to the expanding vapor bubble, which in turn limits the extent of the thermal-to-mechanical energy conversion process. It is important to account for this effect when extrapolating in-pile results to reactor conditions.