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2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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PR: American Nuclear Society welcomes Senate confirmation of Ted Garrish as the DOE’s nuclear energy secretary
Washington, D.C. — The American Nuclear Society (ANS) applauds the U.S. Senate's confirmation of Theodore “Ted” Garrish as Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
“On behalf of over 11,000 professionals in the fields of nuclear science and technology, the American Nuclear Society congratulates Mr. Garrish on being confirmed by the Senate to once again lead the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy,” said ANS President H.M. "Hash" Hashemian.
Marko Maucec, Bogdan Glumac
Nuclear Technology | Volume 149 | Number 1 | January 2005 | Pages 1-13
Technical Paper | Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT05-A3575
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Monte Carlo criticality safety and sensitivity calculations of pressurized water reactor (PWR) spent nuclear fuel repository facilities for the Slovenian nuclear power plant Krsko are presented. The MCNP4C code was deployed to model and assess the neutron multiplication parameters of pool-based storage and dry transport containers under various loading patterns and moderating conditions. To comply with standard safety requirements, fresh 4.25% enriched nuclear fuel was assumed. The impact of potential optimum moderation due to water steam or foam formation as well as of different interpretations, of neutron multiplication through varying the system boundary conditions was elaborated. The simulations indicate that in the case of compact (all rack locations filled with fresh fuel) single or "double tiering" loading, the supercriticality can occur under the conditions of enhanced neutron moderation, due to accidentally reduced density of cooling water. Under standard operational conditions the effective multiplication factor (keff) of pool-based storage facility remains below the specified safety limit of 0.95. The nuclear safety requirements are fulfilled even when the fuel elements are arranged at a minimal distance, which can be initiated, for example, by an earthquake. The dry container in its recommended loading scheme with 26 fuel elements represents a safe alternative for the repository of fresh fuel. Even in the case of complete water flooding, the keff remains below the specified safety level of 0.98. The criticality safety limit may however be exceeded with larger amounts of loaded fuel assemblies (i.e., 32). Additional Monte Carlo criticality safety analyses are scheduled to consider the "burnup credit" of PWR spent nuclear fuel, based on the ongoing calculation of typical burnup activities.
