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2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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Researchers use one-of-a-kind expertise and capabilities to test fuels of tomorrow
At the Idaho National Laboratory Hot Fuel Examination Facility, containment box operator Jake Maupin moves a manipulator arm into position around a pencil-thin nuclear fuel rod. He is preparing for a procedure that he and his colleagues have practiced repeatedly in anticipation of this moment in the hot cell.
H. W. Lewis
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 98 | Number 1 | January 1988 | Pages 79-81
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE88-A23527
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A Bayesian analysis is made of the probability of core melt (defined as “core on the floor”) for U.S. reactors, using methods that are an extension of those used in an earlier work, and that can therefore be used to answer different questions. The essential new point is that at any time the estimate of the probability of core melt varies continuously as melt-free experience accumulates, with a substantial effect on the estimates. The most interesting result is that the probability of no-melt-yet stays large somewhat longer than one might have guessed, largely because melt-free experience feeds on itself in reducing the probability of subsequent core melt, and this process continues until the first melt.