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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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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Deep Space: The new frontier of radiation controls
In commercial nuclear power, there has always been a deliberate tension between the regulator and the utility owner. The regulator fundamentally exists to protect the worker, and the utility, to make a profit. It is a win-win balance.
From the U.S. nuclear industry has emerged a brilliantly successful occupational nuclear safety record—largely the result of an ALARA (as low as reasonably achievable) process that has driven exposure rates down to what only a decade ago would have been considered unthinkable. In the U.S. nuclear industry, the system has accomplished an excellent, nearly seamless process that succeeds to the benefit of both employee and utility owner.
Rodolfo Vaghetto, Luigi Capone, Yassin A. Hassan
Nuclear Technology | Volume 177 | Number 2 | February 2012 | Pages 217-230
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT12-A13367
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An experimental activity was performed to observe and study the effects of graphite dispersion and deposition on thermal-hydraulic phenomena in a reactor cavity cooling system (RCCS). The small-scale RCCS experimental facility (16.5 × 16.5 × 30.4 cm) used for this activity represents half of the reactor cavity with an electrically heated vessel. Water flowing through five vertical pipes removes the heat produced in the vessel and releases it into the environment by mixing with cold water in a large tank. The particle image velocimetry technique was used to study the velocity field of the air inside the cavity. A set of 52 thermocouples was installed in the facility to monitor the temperature profiles of the vessel, pipe walls, and air. Ten grams of a fine graphite powder (average particle size 2 m) was injected into the cavity through a spraying nozzle placed at the bottom of the vessel. The temperatures and air velocity field were recorded and compared with the measurements obtained before the graphite dispersion, showing a decrease of the temperature surfaces that was related to an increase in their emissivity. The results contribute to the understanding of RCCS capability in an accident scenario.