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Aerospace Nuclear Science & Technology
Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
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Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
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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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NRC engineers share their expertise at the University of Puerto Rico
Robert Roche-Rivera and Marcos Rolón-Acevedo are licensed professional engineers who work at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. They are also alumni of the University of Puerto Rico–Mayagüez (UPRM) and have been sharing their knowledge and experience with students at their alma mater since last year, serving as adjunct professors in the university’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. During the 2023–2024 school year, they each taught two courses: Fundamentals of Nuclear Science and Engineering, and Nuclear Power Plant Engineering.
Adolf Rýdl, Leticia Fernandez-Moguel, Terttaliisa Lind
Nuclear Technology | Volume 205 | Number 5 | May 2019 | Pages 655-670
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2018.1511213
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Aerosol scrubbing experiments are recalculated for selected POSEIDON-II series tests and TEPCO-TOSHIBA-HITACHI tests with the MELCOR/SPARC code and with the BUSCA code. The major uncertainties in the calculations are identified and the results of the analyses are used in sensitivity simulations for long-term station blackout accident sequence in a boiling water reactor (BWR) with MELCOR/SPARC. The accident sequence is similar in nature to what happened in Fukushima Unit-3.
In the analyses of experiments, the basic characteristics of the thermal-hydraulic behavior were captured very well by MELCOR/SPARC. The trends in the calculated values of decontamination factors (DFs) for aerosols were in good agreement with the data, predicting the dependence of decontamination on the effect of the submergence depth, of steam content in the gas, and of aerosol particle size. However, the absolute values of DFs as calculated by the codes were rather sensitive to changes in the default input options and the agreement with experiments was not convincing.
In the integral BWR sequence simulations, the predicted DFs for aerosols in the wetwell (WW) was sensitive in the same way as for the experiments. For this type of a scenario, the fission product (FP) releases to containment—represented by Cs and I compounds—were mostly discrete events of short duration. The release path was from the reactor vessel to WW during the operation of the safety relief valves and subsequent venting of the containment from the WW gas space. Even though the passage through the WW water in these simulations was the only way for fission products to reach the environment, the sole scrubbing potential of the wetwell was not the determining contributor to the FP retention. At least of the same importance were the details of the sequence progression, timing of events, FP speciation, and other factors.