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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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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ANS joins others in seeking to discuss SNF/HLW impasse
The American Nuclear Society joined seven other organizations to send a letter to Energy Secretary Christopher Wright on July 8, asking to meet with him to discuss “the restoration of a highly functioning program to meet DOE’s legal responsibility to manage and dispose of the nation’s commercial and legacy defense spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level radioactive waste (HLW).”
August W. Cronenberg, Douglas W. Croucher, Philip E. MacDonald
Nuclear Technology | Volume 67 | Number 2 | November 1984 | Pages 312-325
Technical Paper | Nuclear Fuel | doi.org/10.13182/NT84-A33519
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Fuel melting in severe core damage accidents will lead to the rapid release of fission gas from the fuel matrix and the volatilization of low boiling point metallic inclusions, which can be expected to significantly influence molten fuel dynamics. A quantitative analysis of UO2 foaming potential is based on an assessment of the time characteristics for bubble growth, surface escape, film thinning, and bubble coalescence. Analysis indicates that although the potential exists for early molten UO2 foaming, such foams are basically unstable and tend to collapse, thereby releasing volatilized fission products from the molten fuel debris. Release of such fission products will impact radiological source term evaluation and can result in up to a 40% reduction in the residual decay heat within the core debris. This reduction in core debris heat level will influence the timing and meltdown sequence for such accidents and can impact the heat load requirements of residual heat removal systems or other engineered melt mitigation devices.