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Division Spotlight
Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
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
TerraPower begins U.K. regulatory approval process
Seattle-based TerraPower signaled its interest this week in building its Natrium small modular reactor in the United Kingdom, the company announced.
TerraPower sent a letter to the U.K.’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, formally establishing its intention to enter the U.K. generic design assessment (GDA) process. This is TerraPower’s first step in deployment of its Natrium technology—a 345-MW sodium fast reactor coupled with a molten salt energy storage unit—on the international stage.
Simon C. P. Wang, Clayton Collins, Samim Anghaie, E. Dow Whitney
Nuclear Technology | Volume 93 | Number 3 | March 1991 | Pages 399-411
Technical Paper | Material | doi.org/10.13182/NT91-A34534
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Uranium fluoride gases are proposed as primary candidate fuels for ultrahigh-temperature gas core or vapor core reactor systems for a variety of space power applications. In these systems, the peak temperature of the fissioning gas can be as high as 5000 K and the inner wall temperature of the reactor cavity is within the range of 1000 to 2000 K. Two kinds of alumina, sapphire and polycrystal alpha alumina, and CaO partially stabilized zirconia are exposed to uranium hexafluoride gas in temperatures ranging from 973 to 1473 K and from 873 to 1073 K, respectively. Exposure tests are conducted in a UF6 flowing loop with an alumina reaction tube housed in a 1500 K electric-heated furnace.The reaction rates are measured using a discontinuous gravimetric method. The morphology of the exposed surfaces was observed by optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy, and the reaction products were identified by X-ray diffraction and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Results indicate that alumina provides a relatively higher service temperature in UF6 environment. However, due to the highly reactive and chemically aggressive nature of UF6 at high temperatures, the maximum service temperature of alumina for a UF6-based gas core reactor is limited to 1273 K. Zirconia at temperatures above 973 K is not compatible with UF6.