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Division Spotlight
Robotics & Remote Systems
The Mission of the Robotics and Remote Systems Division is to promote the development and application of immersive simulation, robotics, and remote systems for hazardous environments for the purpose of reducing hazardous exposure to individuals, reducing environmental hazards and reducing the cost of performing work.
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.”
S. Massara, J. Tommasi, M. Vanier, O. Köberl
Nuclear Technology | Volume 149 | Number 2 | February 2005 | Pages 150-174
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT05-A3587
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Fast spectrum minor actinide (MA) burner designs, with high minor actinide loads and consumptions, have been assessed. As reactivity and kinetic coefficients are poor in such cores (low delayed neutron fraction and Doppler feedback, high coolant void coefficient), special attention has been paid to their dynamic behavior during transient conditions. A dynamics code, MAT4 DYN, has been expressly developed to study loss-of-flow, reactivity insertion, and loss-of-coolant accidents. It takes into account two fuel geometries (cylindrical and spherical) and two thermal-hydraulics models for the coolant (incompressible for liquid metals and compressible for helium).Three nitride-fuel configurations are analyzed according to their coolant: sodium and lead (both with pin fuel) and helium (with particle fuel). Dynamics calculations show that if the fuel nature is appropriately chosen, with sufficient margins during transients, then this can counterbalance the poor reactivity coefficients for liquid-metal-cooled cores, thus proving the interest of this kind of concept. On the other hand, the gas-cooled core dynamics is very badly affected by the high value of the helium void coefficient in a hard spectrum, this effect being amplified by the very low thermal inertia of the fuel particles. Hence, concepts other than a particle-bed fuel should be investigated for a helium-cooled fast-spectrum MA burner.