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Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Division Spotlight
Aerospace Nuclear Science & Technology
Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
Meeting Spotlight
Conference on Nuclear Training and Education: A Biennial International Forum (CONTE 2025)
February 3–6, 2025
Amelia Island, FL|Omni Amelia Island Resort
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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Reboot: Nuclear needs a success . . . anywhere
The media have gleefully resurrected the language of a past nuclear renaissance. Beyond the hype and PR, many people in the nuclear community are taking a more measured view of conditions that could lead to new construction: data center demand, the proliferation of new reactor designs and start-ups, and the sudden ascendance of nuclear energy as the power source everyone wants—or wants to talk about.
Once built, large nuclear reactors can provide clean power for at least 80 years—outlasting 10 to 20 presidential administrations. Smaller reactors can provide heat and power outputs tailored to an end user’s needs. With all the new attention, are we any closer to getting past persistent supply chain and workforce issues and building these new plants? And what will the election of Donald Trump to a second term as president mean for nuclear?
As usual, there are more questions than answers, and most come down to money. Several developers are engaging with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or have already applied for a license, certification, or permit. But designs without paying customers won’t get built. So where are the customers, and what will it take for them to commit?
R. J. DiMelfi, L. W. Deitrich
Nuclear Technology | Volume 43 | Number 3 | May 1979 | Pages 328-337
Technical Paper | Fuel | doi.org/10.13182/NT79-A19221
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The microstructural response of fast breeder reactor fuel to accident transients has been analyzed. Based on experimental results, fuel response can be classified as either basically brittle or basically ductile in nature. In the analysis, the type of response is assumed to be determined by the behavior of grain boundary fission gas. The transient variables taken into consideration are the temperature, heating rate, the mean gas content per bubble, mean bubble spacing in the grain boundary, and the stresses resolved normal to grain boundaries containing gas bubbles. By calculating the rate at which a grain boundary bubble grows as a sharp crack and comparing it to the rate of bubble growth by mass transport, a criterion is established to predict the characteristic response of a fuel sample to a specified thermal transient. A swelling threshold time is also determined for the case of ductile fuel behavior. Tensile stresses applied to the grain boundary are shown to enhance brittle behavior, and compressive stresses are shown to enhance ductile behavior. When average values of the relevant variables are extracted from a number of fission gas release and direct electric heating experiments and are used in the above calculation, fuel behavior predictions for these tests are found to correspond well with the experimental results.
