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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Spent fuel transfer project completed at INL
Work crews at Idaho National Laboratory have transferred 40 spent nuclear fuel canisters into long-term storage vaults, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has reported.
J. H. Pitts, E. W. McCauley
Nuclear Technology | Volume 46 | Number 3 | December 1979 | Pages 433-441
Technical Paper | Nuclear Power Reactor Safety / Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT79-A32350
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The response of the pressure-suppression containment system of Mark I boiling water reactors to a large break, design basis loss-of-coolant accident was examined on a scale experimental facility. A logical interrelationship between measured forces, measured pressures, and the hydrodynamic phenomena (observed with high-speed cameras) is established. Peak downward forces on the wetwell occur at about the time of vent clearing. Peak upward forces occur shortly before bubble breakthrough. Quantitative values of forces and pressures from our scale experiment, at times up to and including the peak download, can be applied to full-scale plants using established scaling laws. Only qualitative relationships to full-scale plants are determined at later times, because substantial quantities of steam (not simulated in our scale experiment) would have entered the wetwell.