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2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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NNSA awards BWXT $1.5B defense fuels contract
The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration has awarded BWX Technologies a contract valued at $1.5 billion to build a Domestic Uranium Enrichment Centrifuge Experiment (DUECE) pilot plant in Tennessee in support of the administration’s efforts to build out a domestic supply of unobligated enriched uranium for defense-related nuclear fuel.
John T. Holmes, Grant O. Haroldsen
Nuclear Technology | Volume 21 | Number 3 | March 1974 | Pages 228-234
Technical Paper | Instrument | doi.org/10.13182/NT74-A31393
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II) primary sodium system is equipped with continuous monitors for oxygen and hydrogen impurities in the sodium. The sensors of these monitors have been incorporated into a modularized system that was developed for nuclear reactor applications for sodium temperature and sodium flow-rate conditioning. The oxygen meter calibration is provided by periodic analysis of the oxygen in sodium by the vanadium-equilibration method. The hydrogen meter is a direct reading device and does not require on-line calibration. Typically, the impurity content of the sodium has been shown to be quite stable at 0.6- to 1.0-ppm oxygen and 0.06- to 0.08-ppm hydrogen. On-line carbon monitors are not presently in use at EBR-II. A single determination of the chemical activity carbon in sodium gave a result of 0.002 relative to graphite and is about the same value as measured in other “clean” stainless steel-sodium systems. Plans are being made to equip the EBR-II secondary system with ten hydrogen meters that will be used for detecting the onset of steam-to-sodium leaks such that corrective action can be taken before the leak enlarges and propagates to adjacent tubes.