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Division Spotlight
Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
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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Latest News
Vogtle-3 shuts down for valve issue
One of the new Vogtle units in Georgia was shut down unexpectedly on Monday last week for a valve issue that has since been investigated and repaired. According to multiple local news outlets, Georgia Power reported on July 17 that Unit 3 was back in service.
Southern Company spokesperson Jacob Hawkins confirmed that Vogtle-3 went off line at 9:25 p.m. local time on July 8 “due to lowering water levels in the steam generators caused by a valve issue on one of the three main feedwater pumps.”
E. Eidelpes, L. F. Ibarra (Univ of Utah), R. A. Medina (Univ of New Hampshire)
Proceedings | 16th International High-Level Radioactive Waste Management Conference (IHLRWM 2017) | Charlotte, NC, April 9-13, 2017 | Pages 195-205
The work presented in this paper is part of investigations on the structural integrity of Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) casks after long-term storage and subjected to normal or accidental conditions of transport. The main challenge of this assessment is to account for the time dependent material degradation mechanisms of the cask components. A Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) is used for the overall assessment of the structural integrity of the relevant package components. SNF rod cladding is likely to control structural failure due to mechanical loads, which can be accelerated by hydride related material degradation of fuel rods after long-term storage. Due to limited available experimental data, statistical methods are used to predict the fuel rod conditions between beginning of storage and moment of transport. The value of the Rod Internal Pressure (RIP) appears to be a driving force for the hydride-induced embrittlement. RIP examination data and recent simulations point towards relatively low Cladding Hoop Stresses (CHSs) in standard rods during drying procedures. An exemplary PRA of the likelihood of cladding embrittlement due to Radial Hydride Reorientation (RHR) is presented. The preliminary model indicates a relatively low probability of cladding embrittlement for standard fuel rods.