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May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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What’s the most difficult question you’ve been asked as a maintenance instructor?
Blye Widmar
"Where are the prints?!"
This was the final question in an onslaught of verbal feedback, comments, and critiques I received from my students back in 2019. I had two years of instructor experience and was teaching a class that had been meticulously rehearsed in preparation for an accreditation visit. I knew the training material well and transferred that knowledge effectively enough for all the students to pass the class. As we wrapped up, I asked the students how they felt about my first big system-level class, and they did not hold back.
“Why was the exam from memory when we don’t work from memory in the plant?” “Why didn’t we refer to the vendor documents?” “Why didn’t we practice more on the mock-up?” And so on.
Abdellatif M. Yacout, Kun Mo, Aaron Oaks, Michael Billone, Yinbin Miao, Jeffrey Alicz
Nuclear Technology | Volume 209 | Number 1 | January 2023 | Pages S109-S122
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2022.2105779
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Metallic fuel is proposed for use in various advanced sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) designs, including small modular reactors and microreactors. To support advanced SFR research and development, a metallic fuel database has been developed at Argonne National Laboratory. The database was built on extensive metallic fuel data collected during the Integral Fast Reactor Program, mainly from irradiation experiments in the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II). In order to manage the large amount of data and associated documents and to qualify the data, a Quality Assurance Program Plan (QAPP) was established for the legacy metallic fuel data following the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Nuclear Quality Assurance (NQA-1) 2008/2009 Addenda Standard. Metallic fuel data qualification is being performed following the QAPP. The plan has been approved by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and can be referenced in licensing applications for nuclear power plants. The process for qualifying metallic fuel data is presented. The structure for implementing the QAPP and the qualification methods are introduced. The principle for prioritizing the metallic fuel data for quality assurance is summarized. An overview of the metallic fuel data available and considered for qualification is also provided.