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Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
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2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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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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Remembering Joseph M. Hendrie
Joseph M. Hendrie
To those of us who knew Joe, even prior to his appointment as chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, it is an understatement to say that he was a larger-than-life member of the nuclear science and technology enterprise. He was best known to the broader community for two major accomplishments: the design and construction of the High Flux Beam Reactor (HFBR) at Brookhaven National Laboratory and the creation of the standard review plan (SRP) for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.
In addition to the products of these endeavors becoming major fundaments to their respective communities, they were uniquely Joe. The safety analysis report for the HFBR was written essentially single-handedly by him. This was true of the SRP as well, which became the key safety review document for the NRC as it performed safety reviews for the growing number of power reactor applications in the United States. His deep technical knowledge of nuclear engineering and his extraordinary management skills made this possible.
Akira Shibata, Yoshiaki Kato, Taketoshi Taguchi, Masatoshi Futakawa, Katsuhiro Maekawa
Nuclear Technology | Volume 196 | Number 1 | October 2016 | Pages 89-99
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NT16-54
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Zircaloy-4 has been widely used as a nuclear fuel cladding material. However, recently, several European countries have gradually replaced Zircaloy-4 cladding material in pressurized water reactor (PWR) nuclear power plants with a Zr-Nb alloy called M5 and other new zirconium alloys with Nb added that are expected to have relatively longer operating lives. Although improved corrosion resistance of the advanced zirconium alloys was demonstrated in various conditions, the origin of this resistance has not yet been elucidated. In this study, corrosion tests were performed on Zircaloy-4 and M5 under simulated PWR water conditions to explore the origin of the better corrosion resistance of the advanced zirconium alloys. Alloy specimens were exposed to simulated PWR conditions, and the increase in oxide film content was analyzed by weight gain and microscopy observations. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was performed on Zircaloy-4 and M5 in the pretransition period of oxide film to compare their corrosion properties. The EIS results obtained in this study show that the electrochemical behavior of M5 is significantly different from that of Zircaloy-4 in the early period of the initial stage in the pretransition oxidation process. To explain the result, a multilayer circuit model is assumed. The resistance of the diffusion layer comprising multiple layers restricts the rate of oxidation in the M5 response system. The occurrence of this process caused by multilayered oxide film would contribute to improved corrosion resistance of M5 under PWR water conditions.