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Division Spotlight
Thermal Hydraulics
The division provides a forum for focused technical dialogue on thermal hydraulic technology in the nuclear industry. Specifically, this will include heat transfer and fluid mechanics involved in the utilization of nuclear energy. It is intended to attract the highest quality of theoretical and experimental work to ANS, including research on basic phenomena and application to nuclear system design.
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Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
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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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BWXT will scout potential TRISO fuel production sites in Wyoming
BWX Technologies Inc. announced today that its Advanced Technologies subsidiary has signed a cooperation agreement with the state of Wyoming to evaluate locations and requirements for siting a potential new TRISO nuclear fuel fabrication facility in the state.
Constantine P. Tzanos, Nelson A. Hanan, Achilles G. Adamantiades
Nuclear Technology | Volume 63 | Number 3 | December 1983 | Pages 369-396
Technical Paper | Nuclear Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT83-A33266
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A comparative assessment of the core degradation frequency due to internal accident initiators between a typical large liquid-metal fast breeder reactor (LMFBR) design and pressurized water reactors (PWRs) has been performed. For the PWR system, existing analyses have been utilized. For the reference LMFBR, an extensive analysis has been performed for two accident initiators, i.e., loss of off-site power and loss of main feedwater. Based on this analysis an estimate of ∼1 × 10-6/reactor·yr has been obtained for the core degradation frequency of the reference LMFBR. This estimate is significantly smaller than the PWR core degradation frequency (∼6 ×10-5/yr). A sensitivity analysis shows that the parameters having the largest impact on the unavailability of decay heat removal are (a) for the “loss of off-site power” initiator: human error and failure to restore off-site power, and (b) for the “loss of main feedwater” initiator: the leakage rates of the passive decay heat removal system and the adoption of the policy to repair the Na-NaK heat exchanger only during normal shutdowns. The results indicate that the LMFBR system has the potential of higher resistance than the PWR system to the accident initiators considered. The lower core degradation frequency estimated for the LMFBR system is due to the presence of two redundant and diverse reactor shutdown systems, with a self-actuated feature included in one of them, the incorporation of a passive decay heat removal system, and the significantly lower sensitivity of the reference LMFBR to primary system pipe breaks.