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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
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.”
Liaquat Ali Khan, Nasir Ahmad
Nuclear Technology | Volume 119 | Number 2 | August 1997 | Pages 201-210
Technical Note | Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow | doi.org/10.13182/NT97-A35387
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The effect of operating cycle and fuel burnup on the isotopic composition and decay characteristics of irradiated nuclear fuel has been investigated using a standard computer code, KORIGEN. The parameters studied include isotopic compositions of actinides; activities due to the actinides, fission products, and light elements; decay heat; and the spontaneous fission neutron source. Calculations have been performed for a typical swimming pool-type research reactor, using materials test reactor-type low-enriched uranium fuel, for four different operating cycles. A fuel burnup range of 5 to 35% has been considered. The cooling time ranged from a fraction of a second to thousands of years. Results indicate that the amount of plutonium produced is strongly dependent on fuel burnup. It is not significantly affected by the operating cycle. The operating history of the reactor has a strong influence on fission product inventory and decay heat. The main contributors to activity and decay heat for the first two to three centuries are fission products; thereafter, actinides are the main contributors. The activity and decay heat drop drastically during the first day after shutdown. Both alpha activity and the spontaneous fission neutron source are strongly dependent on the operating cycle and fuel burnup. These increase with an increase in the fuel burnup but decrease for a longer power-on cycle.