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Division Spotlight
Accelerator Applications
The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
Meeting Spotlight
Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
Standards Program
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
Vogtle-3 shuts down for valve issue
One of the new Vogtle units in Georgia was shut down unexpectedly on Monday last week for a valve issue that has since been investigated and repaired. According to multiple local news outlets, Georgia Power reported on July 17 that Unit 3 was back in service.
Southern Company spokesperson Jacob Hawkins confirmed that Vogtle-3 went off line at 9:25 p.m. local time on July 8 “due to lowering water levels in the steam generators caused by a valve issue on one of the three main feedwater pumps.”
Eric Leclerc, Georges J. Berthoud
Nuclear Technology | Volume 144 | Number 2 | November 2003 | Pages 158-174
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT03-A3437
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In hypothetical Severe Accident studies for a PWR, a large amount of molten corium may be poured into water. There is then a risk of Steam Explosion. After the premixing sequence in which the melt is more or less dispersed into water, a fine fragmentation process may start, which can lead to an escalation. Such an event is generally triggered by the destabilization of the vapor film surrounding the hot melt droplets. In this paper, an attempt to describe all the successive processes leading to this fine fragmentation is presented.First, a critical analysis of previous models is performed, allowing us to propose a new sequence of events. As in the previous models, the film destabilization leads to the growth of cold liquid peaks induced by Rayleigh Taylor instability. As these peaks have a smaller density than the drop, they do not penetrate into the hot drop. At the cold liquid-hot liquid contacts, transient heat transfer leads to the explosive boiling of a small amount of coolant. The generated local pressurization deforms the hot melt interface. This can produce fine fragments from the filaments issued from the melt. Some of them may reach the vapor-coolant interface where intense and rapid vaporization occurs. A large bubble then develops, and a new fragmentation sequence may again appear at the bubble collapse. The present model is supported by experimental results.