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Division Spotlight
Radiation Protection & Shielding
The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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
Lightbridge announces first U-Zr fuel rod samples extruded at INL
Lightbridge Corporation announced today that it has reached “a critical milestone” in the development of its extruded solid fuel technology. Coupon samples using an alloy of zirconium and depleted uranium—not the high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) that Lightbridge plans to use to manufacture its fuel for the commercial market—were extruded at Idaho National Laboratory’s Materials and Fuels Complex.
A. Moisseytsev, E. Hoffman, C. Grandy
Nuclear Technology | Volume 173 | Number 3 | March 2011 | Pages 251-269
Technical Paper | Heat Transfer | doi.org/10.13182/NT11-A11660
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The selection of the operating temperatures for a sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) always involves a trade-off between the plant performance and cost. In this work, the general trends with an increase of the core outlet temperature were calculated for the Advanced Burner Reactor (ABR). First, the benefits of higher temperatures in terms of the higher plant efficiency were calculated for several power conversion systems. To characterize the disadvantages of higher temperatures, the safety margins were investigated for the design conditions, normal operational transients, and beyond-design-basis accidents. The limiting criteria were identified for both oxide and metal fuel core designs. In addition, the effect of the higher temperatures on the structural thicknesses was estimated. A preliminary cost analysis incorporating both benefits and cost penalties of higher temperatures showed the economical benefit potential of higher temperatures, provided that the safety requirements are satisfied by the design and/or material selection.