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Division Spotlight
Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
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?
B. M. Durst, S. R. Bierman, E. D. Clayton, J. F. Mincey
Nuclear Technology | Volume 48 | Number 2 | April 1980 | Pages 128-149
Technical Paper | Fuel | doi.org/10.13182/NT80-A32460
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A series of experiments was performed at the Batelle-Pacific Northwest Laboratories on water-flooded arrays of Fast Test Reactor fuel elements (PUO2-UO2) intermixed with solid neutron absorbers. The objective of these experiments was to provide reliable experiment data that could be used to benchmark computer codes and calculational schemes commonly used in criticality analysis of such systems. The neutron absorbers used were cadmium and Boral plates and gadolinium cylindrical rods. Critical array sizes were determined for square lattice pitches ranging from 9.7 to 24.9 mm, corresponding to water-to-fuel volume ratios of 3.5 to ∼31 (hydrogen atom to fissile atom ratios of 58 to 473). For both systems, poisoned and unpoisoned, the minimum number of rods required for criticality occurred at a lattice pitch of ∼20.5 mm, which also corresponds to a water-to-fuel volume ratio of 20.5. The smallest critical number of rods for the unpoisoned array was 157. Boral was the most effective absorber, irrespective of degree of moderation or its position in the assembly. However, all three absorbers varied in degree of effectiveness with moderation.