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The Mission of the Robotics and Remote Systems Division is to promote the development and application of immersive simulation, robotics, and remote systems for hazardous environments for the purpose of reducing hazardous exposure to individuals, reducing environmental hazards and reducing the cost of performing work.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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RP3C Community of Practice’s fifth anniversary
In February, the Community of Practice (CoP) webinar series, hosted by the American Nuclear Society Standards Board’s Risk-informed, Performance-based Principles and Policies Committee (RP3C), celebrated its fifth anniversary. Like so many online events, these CoPs brought people together at a time when interacting with others became challenging in early 2020. Since the kickoff CoP, which highlighted the impact that systems engineering has on the design of NuScale’s small modular reactor, the last Friday of most months has featured a new speaker leading a discussion on the use of risk-informed, performance-based (RIPB) thinking in the nuclear industry. Providing a venue to convene for people within ANS and those who found their way online by another route, CoPs are an opportunity for the community to receive answers to their burning questions about the subject at hand. With 50–100 active online participants most months, the conversation is always lively, and knowledge flows freely.
Martin L. Grossbeck, Kenneth C. Liu
Nuclear Technology | Volume 58 | Number 3 | September 1982 | Pages 538-547
Technical Paper | Material | doi.org/10.13182/NT82-A32987
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Received July 6, 1981 Accepted for Publication March 18, 1982 In a tokamak reactor that operates in a cyclic mode, thermal stresses will result in fatigue in structural components, especially in the first wall and blanket. There has been limited work on fatigue in irradiated alloys, but none on irradiated materials containing irradiation-induced helium, which will be characteristic of fusion service. Specimens of 20% cold-worked Type 316 stainless steel were irradiated in the High Flux Isotope Reactor, which produces atomic displacement damage as well as helium through a two-step neutron absorption reaction with nickel. The specimens were irradiated at 430°C to up to 15 dpa and 900 at. ppm helium. Following irradiation, specimens were tested in a vacuum at the irradiation temperature with total strain ranges from 0.30 to 2.0%. The irradiated specimens exhibited a reduction in fatigue life of a factor of 3 to 10 compared to unirradiated material. An endurance limit was observed at a total strain range of 0.3%) for irradiated material. A fracture mechanism with surface morphology similar to cleavage, believed to be related to precipitation along slip bands, was observed in the irradiated specimens. The endurance limit occurs at a sufficiently high strain that fusion machines built to existing designs would be able to operate with Type 316 stainless steel first walls at 430°C. Since the specimens have been irradiated to damage levels only as high as 15 dpa, the equivalent of ∼1.5 MWyr/m2, it can be safely inferred that wall exposure can be at least this high without fatigue failure.