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Nuclear Criticality Safety
NCSD provides communication among nuclear criticality safety professionals through the development of standards, the evolution of training methods and materials, the presentation of technical data and procedures, and the creation of specialty publications. In these ways, the division furthers the exchange of technical information on nuclear criticality safety with the ultimate goal of promoting the safe handling of fissionable materials outside reactors.
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Conference on Nuclear Training and Education: A Biennial International Forum (CONTE 2025)
February 3–6, 2025
Amelia Island, FL|Omni Amelia Island Resort
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Senate committee hears from energy secretary nominee Chris Wright
Wright
Chris Wright, president-elect Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Department of Energy, spent hours today fielding questions from members of the U.S. Senate’s committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
During the hearing, Wright—who’s spent most of his career in fossil fuels—made comments in support of nuclear energy and efforts to expand domestic generation in the near future. Asked what actions he would take as energy secretary to improve the development and deployment of SMRs, Wright said: “It’s a big challenge, and I’m new to government, so I can’t list off the five levers I can pull. But (I’ve been in discussions) about how to make it easier to research, to invest, to build things. The DOE has land at some of its facilities that can be helpful in this regard.”
Yasuki Kowata, Nobuo Fukumura
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 99 | Number 4 | August 1988 | Pages 299-312
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE88-A23560
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Using the substitution method combined with the pulsed neutron technique, coolant void reactivities of PuO2-UO2 fuel lattices in pressure-tube-type heavy water reactors have been determined as functions of PuO2 enrichment in PuO2-UO2 (0.54 and 0.87 wt%), fissile content of plutonium (91 and 75% fissile plutonium), lattice pitch (Vm/Vf: 7.4 and 9.9), and coolant void fraction (0, 30, 70, 87, and 100%). The reference loading of 1.2 wt% enriched UO2 clusters was progressively replaced by PuO2-UO2 test clusters. The void reactivities were obtained from Simmons and King’s formula in which correction was made for a change of the prompt generation time. As decay constants can be maintained invariable due to substitution, buckling differences were analyzed by the first-order perturbation method, on the assumption that lattices are homogeneous and no difference in diffusion coefficients exists between the two lattices. Void reactivities of test lattices were determined with an accuracy of ∼10% when the minimum number of test fuel clusters was ∼5% of the total. The void reactivity shifted farther to the negative side as the proportion of fissile plutonium was increasingly in the PuO2-UO2 fuel of the same enrichment of plutonium.