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Division Spotlight
Education, Training & Workforce Development
The Education, Training & Workforce Development Division provides communication among the academic, industrial, and governmental communities through the exchange of views and information on matters related to education, training and workforce development in nuclear and radiological science, engineering, and technology. Industry leaders, education and training professionals, and interested students work together through Society-sponsored meetings and publications, to enrich their professional development, to educate the general public, and to advance nuclear and radiological science and engineering.
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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Nuclear Science and Engineering
August 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
ARPA-E announces $40 million to develop transmutation technologies for UNF
The Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) announced $40 million in funding to develop cutting-edge technologies to enable the transmutation of used nuclear fuel into less-radioactive substances. According to ARPA-E, the new initiative addresses one of the agency’s core goals as outlined by Congress: to provide transformative solutions to improve the management, cleanup, and disposal of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel.
Rahman S. Abdulmohsin, Muthanna H. Al-Dahhan
Nuclear Technology | Volume 198 | Number 1 | April 2017 | Pages 17-25
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2017.1292818
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In the dynamic core of nuclear pebble bed reactors, the prediction of the fluid flow within the packing determines the heat transfer characteristics and, hence, the performance of these reactors.
The fluid flow of the gas phase can be characterized and quantified in terms of the pressure drop coefficient. Therefore, in this work, the pressure drop in a packed pebble bed having different aspect ratios (ratio of the diameter of the bed to the diameter of the pebbles) has been measured experimentally in a separate-effects pilot-plant scale and cold-flow experimental setup of 0.3 m in diameter using a differential pressure transducer technique. The effects of superficial gas velocity have been investigated using a range of velocities from 0.01 to 2 m/s covering both the laminar and turbulent flow regimes. In addition, the effect of bed structure (aspect ratio) on the pressure drop coefficient has been investigated for the studied packed pebble bed. The results show the strong dependence of the pressure drop on both the aspect ratio and, hence, the porosity of the bed and the coolant gas velocity. The obtained experimental results have been used to evaluate the predictions of the correlations recommended for pressure drop estimation in packed pebble bed nuclear reactors. The present work provides insight on the pressure drop and fluid flow of the gas phase in the studied bed using an advanced technique and methodology.