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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
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
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
TerraPower begins U.K. regulatory approval process
Seattle-based TerraPower signaled its interest this week in building its Natrium small modular reactor in the United Kingdom, the company announced.
TerraPower sent a letter to the U.K.’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, formally establishing its intention to enter the U.K. generic design assessment (GDA) process. This is TerraPower’s first step in deployment of its Natrium technology—a 345-MW sodium fast reactor coupled with a molten salt energy storage unit—on the international stage.
D. Haas, J. van de Velde, H. Braun
Nuclear Technology | Volume 43 | Number 1 | April 1979 | Pages 100-108
Technical Paper | Material | doi.org/10.13182/NT79-A16178
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In the Rapsodie-I experiment, two bundles, each containing 34 fast breeder reactor fuel pins, have been irradiated up to a peak burnup of 10.6 at.% and to a peak fast fluence (E > 0.1 MeV) of 6.65 × 1026 n/m2. One of the main objectives of this experiment was to evaluate the mechanical behavior of a bundle with spacer grids. Two types of spacer grid designs have been tested: namely, a brazed ferrule grid design and a honeycomb spot-welded grid design. The grid material was in every case niobium-stabilized austenitic stainless steel type W.Nr. 1.4981 in the annealed condition. The density and the dimensional measurements carried out on the spacer grids revealed that the geometrical changes in the grids were almost entirely due to material void swelling. In some cases, however, mechanical interactions between grids and wrapper tubes and also between fuel pins and grid cells have been emphasized. These interactions had no detrimental influence on the in-pile bundle behavior. The postirradiation mechanical tests carried out on the honeycomb spacer grids showed that the mechanical properties of the grid cells have not been significantly altered by the irradiation. A decrease of the grid material Young’s modulus has been correlated with void swelling. It has been concluded that the spacer grids operated satisfactorily despite their severe loading conditions.