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Division Spotlight
Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
Meeting Spotlight
Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
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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Nuclear Science and Engineering
August 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
ARPA-E announces $40 million to develop transmutation technologies for UNF
The Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) announced $40 million in funding to develop cutting-edge technologies to enable the transmutation of used nuclear fuel into less-radioactive substances. According to ARPA-E, the new initiative addresses one of the agency’s core goals as outlined by Congress: to provide transformative solutions to improve the management, cleanup, and disposal of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel.
Robert E. Henry
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 193 | Number 7 | July 2019 | Pages 790-799
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2018.1560855
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Evaluations of severe accident conditions for water-cooled reactors with metallic fuel pin cladding must consider the oxidation of this material for accident sequences that could lead to high metal temperatures in a steam environment. Such representations are included in integral accident analysis computer codes. If the oxidation causes sufficiently high temperatures to melt, or liquefies the core materials, the core geometry changes as the melt drains downward and freezes on cooler structures promoting blockages and redirection of steam flowing through the fuel assemblies. Once this configuration forms, the accident condition is characterized as the late phase of core oxidation. The Phebus in-reactor experiments investigated hydrogen generation in this compacted core state and measured the generation rates over several thousand seconds. This paper investigates the role of countercurrent steam-hydrogen flow to the debris upper surface as a limit for the generation rate and finds that this provides a close description of the behavior for the Phebus experiments. Applying this mechanism to reactor accident conditions shows how this should be considered in the Severe Accident Management Guidelines.