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Nuclear Installations Safety
Devoted specifically to the safety of nuclear installations and the health and safety of the public, this division seeks a better understanding of the role of safety in the design, construction and operation of nuclear installation facilities. The division also promotes engineering and scientific technology advancement associated with the safety of such facilities.
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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
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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.
C. C. Lee, R. A. Karam
Nuclear Technology | Volume 56 | Number 3 | March 1982 | Pages 535-546
Technical Paper | Nuclear Fuel | doi.org/10.13182/NT82-A32912
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Optimized breeding performances of three breeder strategies are compared. The first strategy is the normal mixed plutonium-uranium oxide fuel cycle, which is used as a reference case. The second is based on the use of the light water reactor generated plutonium in interim Pu-Th (metallic fuel) breeders cooled with sodium to build up 233U inventory for use in liquid-metal fast breeder reactors fueled with metallic 233U-Th. The third is based on a combination cycle involving two reactor types, Pu-Th and 233U-238U, both using metallic fuel and sodium as a coolant. These reactors will operate simultaneously; the excess 233U generated in the Pu-Th reactors is used to fuel the 233U-238U reactors and the plutonium generated in the 233U-238U reactors is used to fuel the Pu-Th reactors. The combination cycle has obvious antiproliferation characteristics. The breeding performance as measured by optimized compound system doubling time for nominal 1000-MW(electric) systems was 8.8 years for the combination system of Pu-Th and 233U-238U reactors 31.4 years for the 233U-Th reactor, and 14 years for the (Pu-U)O2 reactor. The corresponding optimum fuel pin diameters were 0.30, 0.37, and 0.28 in., respectively. The Δk/k change associated with the removal of all the sodium from the inner core (inner to outer core volume ratio is 60:40) was +0.03, +1.01, +1.23, and +2.60% for the 233U-Th, 233U-238U, Pu-Th, and (Pu-U)O2 reactors, respectively. Preliminary calculations indicate that it is possible to design the 233U-238U reactors to operate on an extended cycle such that once the reactor is built, it only needs natural uranium as feed fuel for the rest of the lifetime of the reactor. Estimates of the fuel cycle costs of each reactor show that the cost of the extended burnup cycle is ∼35% less than the (Pu-U)O2 cycle.
