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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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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
OECD NEA meeting focuses on irradiation experiments
Members of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency’s Second Framework for Irradiation Experiments (FIDES-II) joint undertaking gathered from September 29 to October 3 in Ketchum, Idaho, for the technical advisory group and governing board meetings hosted by Idaho National Laboratory. The FIDES-II Framework aims to ensure and foster competences in experimental nuclear fuel and structural materials in-reactor experiments through a diverse set of Joint Experimental Programs (JEEPs).
Gyeongho Nam, Junseok Park, Sangnyung Kim
Nuclear Technology | Volume 189 | Number 3 | March 2015 | Pages 278-293
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-121
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident showed that severe events are real—not virtual—threats. In both pressurized water reactor and boiling water reactor nuclear plants, the containment is the last resort against radiation leakage, with the integrity of containment being directly linked to nuclear safety. To maintain the containment below Factored Load Category for 24 h and beyond after core damage, external cooling measures such as a gas vent system and an emergency containment spray backup system have been mandated. With these measures, it is difficult to completely satisfy all the requirements for proper cooling and minimized penetration and leakage while maximizing reliability and meeting the need for a passive design. Accomplishing all of these requires substantial repair and maintenance costs; thus, many difficulties can be anticipated with their implementation. This study proposes the installation of several multipod heat pipe assemblies; such an assembly includes an adiabatic region consisting of one large cylindrical structure penetrating the containment dome, a boiling region, and a condenser region consisting of many pipes that serve as the ultimate heat sink to discharge the decay heat energy from the containment with no radiation leak. Such installation will dramatically improve the nuclear safety in the event of a severe accident.