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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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).”
Georges Berthoud, Albert W. Longest, Anthony L. Wright, Wolfgang P. Schütz
Nuclear Technology | Volume 81 | Number 2 | May 1988 | Pages 257-277
Technical Paper | Nuclear Aerosol Science / Nuclear Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT88-A34096
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In the extremely unlikely event of a liquid-metal fast breeder reactor core disruptive accident, expanding core material or sodium vapor inside the sodium pool may cause leaks in the vessel head and transport of radioactive material, mostly aerosols, in one large bubble or several smaller bubbles under energetic conditions to the cover gas and through leaks to the inner containment (“instantaneous source term”). Out-of-pile experiments on bubble expansion from a pressurized source inside a liquid (water or sodium) and related phenomena like heat transfer, condensation, entrainment, rise, and aerosol transport were carried out in France and the United States and are continuing in the Federal Republic of Germany. Parameters and results of these experiments are described and discussed, mainly concerning the aerosol problem. It appears that several mechanisms exist for a very efficient removal of particles from the bubble. Retention factors larger than 10000 were found in most cases. In addition, a short survey is given of French and German experiments on fuel and fission product release from evaporating or burning sodium pools (delayed source term).