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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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Latest News
Inkjet droplets of radioactive material enable quick, precise testing at NIST
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have developed a technique called cryogenic decay energy spectrometry capable of detecting single radioactive decay events from tiny material samples and simultaneously identifying the atoms involved. In time, the technology could replace characterization tasks that have taken months and could support rapid, accurate radiopharmaceutical development and used nuclear fuel recycling, according to an article published on July 8 by NIST.
Fred Gelbard, Bradley A. Beeny, Larry L. Humphries, Kenneth C. Wagner, Lucas I. Albright, Max Poschmann, Markus H. A. Piro
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 197 | Number 10 | October 2023 | Pages 2723-2741
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2022.2161277
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) systems can be divided into two basic categories: liquid-fueled MSRs in which the fuel is dissolved in the salt, and solid-fueled systems such as the Fluoride-salt-cooled High-temperature Reactor (FHR). The molten salt provides an impediment to fission product release as actinides and many fission products are soluble in molten salt. Nonetheless, under accident conditions, some radionuclides may escape the salt by vaporization and aerosol formation, which may lead to release into the environment. We present recent enhancements to MELCOR to represent the transport of radionuclides in the salt and releases from the salt. Some soluble but volatile radionuclides may vaporize and subsequently condense to aerosol. Insoluble fission products can deposit on structures. Thermochimica, an open-source Gibbs Energy Minimization (GEM) code, has been integrated into MELCOR. With the appropriate thermochemical database, Thermochimica provides the solubility and vapor pressure of species as a function of temperature, pressure, and composition, which are needed to characterize the vaporization rate and the state of the salt with fission products. Since thermochemical databases are still under active development for molten salt systems, thermodynamic data for fission product solubility and vapor pressure may be user specified. This enables preliminary assessments of fission product transport in molten salt systems. In this paper, we discuss modeling of soluble and insoluble fission product releases in a MSR with Thermochimica incorporated into MELCOR. Separate-effects experiments performed as part of the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment in which radioactive aerosol was released are discussed as needed for determining the source term.