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Spent fuel recycling and conditioning topic of U.S.-Japan meeting
Officials with the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management discussed spent nuclear fuel recycling and conditioning with counterparts from Japan during the 13th U.S.-Japan Technical Meeting of the Civil Nuclear Energy Research and Development Working Group, held recently in Santa Fe, N.M.
Jeffrey W. Lane, David L. Aumiller, Jr., Lawrence E. Hochreiter, Fan-Bill Cheung
Nuclear Technology | Volume 177 | Number 2 | February 2012 | Pages 176-187
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT12-A13364
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A three-field countercurrent flow limitation (CCFL) model based on the classic flooding curve methodology has been developed and successfully demonstrated in a derivative of the COBRA-TF code. The various physical mechanisms (wave reversal, liquid bridging, and wave interfacial instability) supposed to govern the flooding and flow reversal phenomena are extremely complex and geometric dependent. As a result universally applicable numerical models for these phenomena are not currently available. The chosen approach provides flexibility and leverages the available experimental data to improve the predictive capability of the code. The model is an extension of the standard two-field (liquid-vapor) CCFL model to a three-field (liquid films, vapor, and liquid droplets) CCFL model. This extension includes providing the appropriate set of momentum equations, definitions of required superficial velocities, and new entrainment rate correlations based on CCFL conditions. Necessary criteria to enter and exit the model in a numerically stable manner are also described. The implementation of the model was verified and was shown to provide increased numerical stability in the code predictions. Improvement in the code-to-data agreement of the allowable downward liquid penetration rate for the Dukler and Smith experiments is also demonstrated.