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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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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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Shifting the paradigm of supply chain
Chad Wolf
When I began my nuclear career, I was coached up in the nuclear energy culture of the day to “run silent, run deep,” a mindset rooted in the U.S. Navy’s submarine philosophy. That was the norm—until Fukushima.
The nuclear renaissance that many had envisioned hit a wall. The focus shifted from expansion to survival. Many utility communications efforts pivoted from silence to broadcast, showcasing nuclear energy’s elegance and reliability. Nevertheless, despite being clean baseload 24/7 power that delivered a 90 percent capacity factor or higher, nuclear energy was painted as risky and expensive (alongside energy policies and incentives that favored renewables).
Economics became a driving force threatening to shutter nuclear power. The Delivering the Nuclear Promise initiative launched in 2015 challenged the industry to sustain high performance yet cut costs by up to 30 percent.
A. Y. Ying, A. R. Raffray, M. A. Abdou
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 19 | Number 3 | May 1991 | Pages 1481-1486
ITER | Proceedings of the Ninth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (Oak Brook, Illinois, October 7-11, 1990) | doi.org/10.13182/FST91-A29550
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper addresses the thermal transport issues associated with a loss of flow accident (LOFA) for US ITER solid breeder blanket. Two LOFA scenarios were considered. For a LOFA due to a simultaneous catastrophic pump failure, the coolant temperature reaches its boiling point within only about 15 – 20 seconds. This scenario appears extremely unlikely and should be better characterized through a probability risk assessment study in order to determine to what extent corrective actions such as the use of backup pump should be taken. For a LOFA due to loss of power to the coolant pumps, the resulting flow transient is characterized by considering the effect of fluid inertia and pump inertia. Once a determination of the flow coastdown has been made, the temperature histories of blanket elements and coolant are analyzed using lumped parameter techniques. The results of the analyses indicate that the rate of coolant temperature rise due to the heat (generated and/or stored) transferred from the solid breeder area is strongly dependent on the transient flow behavior. If the coolant pump can be designed with a sufficiently large pump inertia (with an inertia time constants of about 1.5 s or more), the coolant temperature can stay under its boiling point for several minutes to allow for corrective action to be implemented. As an added safety measure, it seems prudent to include in the design a system of expansion volumes and/or safety valves for accommodating coolant pressure transients.
