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Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
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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Argonne’s METL gears up to test more sodium fast reactor components
Argonne National Laboratory has successfully swapped out an aging cold trap in the sodium test loop called METL (Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop), the Department of Energy announced April 23. The upgrade is the first of its kind in the United States in more than 30 years, according to the DOE, and will help test components and operations for the sodium-cooled fast reactors being developed now.
Dandong Feng, Pavel Hejzlar, Mujid S. Kazimi
Nuclear Technology | Volume 160 | Number 1 | October 2007 | Pages 16-44
Technical Paper | Annular Fuel | doi.org/10.13182/NT07-A3882
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper presents steady-state thermal-hydraulic analyses of various lattices of externally and internally cooled annular pressurized water reactor (PWR) fuel to identify the geometry that allows the largest possible power density while maintaining or increasing the minimum departure from nucleate boiling ratio (MDNBR) margin in current PWRs. Differences from the typical solid rod fuel are identified, and tools for the analysis are established. These involve an in-house code developed for this purpose and an adaptation of the VIPRE-01 whole-core model using a built-in heated tube option. A 13 × 13 square array that maintains the same assembly dimensions as the current 17 × 17 fuel assembly and keeps the same fuel-to-moderator ratio was identified to achieve the best performance and the largest MDNBR margin. It is demonstrated that with a proportional increase of the core flow rate, the annular fuel allows for an up to 50% power uprate at the same MDNBR margin as in current solid PWR fuel, or for a smaller uprate with larger MDNBR margins. The same uprate was found to be possible if annular fuel is used with a hexagonal lattice, such as in VVER plants. Even at this large power rating, the peak fuel temperature is smaller by hundreds of degrees centigrade than for the solid fuel. Analyses have also shown that the annular fuel is stable against both a power excursion and density wave oscillations and has only small sensitivity to oxide layer growth and manufacturing tolerances. Gap conductance asymmetry (between the inner and outer gaps) was identified as the key issue that will limit the design because gap heat transfer resistance affects the MNDBR, unlike for the solid fuel. The annular fuel MNDBR was also found to be more sensitive to variations in core operating parameters than solid fuel, but this is more than compensated for by a significantly larger MDNBR margin during normal operation.