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Division Spotlight
Robotics & Remote Systems
The Mission of the Robotics and Remote Systems Division is to promote the development and application of immersive simulation, robotics, and remote systems for hazardous environments for the purpose of reducing hazardous exposure to individuals, reducing environmental hazards and reducing the cost of performing work.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Winter Conference and Expo
November 17–21, 2024
Orlando, FL|Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld
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
From remediation to production: The DOE’s Cleanup to Clean Energy initiative
On July 28, 2023, the Department of Energy launched its Cleanup to Clean Energy initiative, an effort to repurpose underutilized DOE-owned property—portions of which were previously used in the nation’s nuclear weapons program—into the sites of clean-energy generation.
Min-Ho Baek, Sang-Ji Kim, Jaewoon Yoo, In-Ho Bae
Nuclear Technology | Volume 183 | Number 3 | September 2013 | Pages 287-297
Technical Paper | Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-A19418
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The major roles of a prototype sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) planned to be developed at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute are (a) to provide an irradiation test capability for fuel and structural materials and (b) to obtain operational experience on the systems and components. The power level of the prototype SFR should be large enough to provide an appropriate irradiation test environment. Trade-off studies were therefore performed from a neutronics viewpoint to determine the power level. Specifically, core designs were performed for power levels of 125, 250, 400, and 500 MW(thermal). The selected core performance and economic efficiency indices became insensitive to the power at [approximately]400 to 500 MW(thermal) and sharply deteriorated at [approximately]125 to 250 MW(thermal) with decreasing core sizes. For the fuel management scheme, the transuranic (TRU) core performance compared with that of the uranium core, and the sodium void reactivity, were also evaluated with increasing power levels. It was found that increasing the number of batches shows a higher-burnup performance and economic efficiency. However, increasing the cycle length resulted in a lower economic efficiency. The irradiation performance of TRU and enriched TRU cores was improved by [approximately]20% and 50%, respectively. A maximum sodium void reactivity of 5.2 $ was confirmed as less than the design limit of 7.5 $. As a conclusion of our entire study, the power capacity of the prototype SFR should not be <250 MW(thermal), and would be appropriate at [approximately]500 MW(thermal) considering the performance and economic efficiency.