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DOE, INL, Kairos talk nuclear energy at Senate committee hearing
It has been 10 months since President Trump signed several executive orders that have reshaped the nuclear energy industry and set lofty goals for initiatives like the development and deployment of new nuclear technology.
One such initiative, the DOE’s Nuclear Reactor Pilot Program, calls for at least 3 of the 11 reactors in the program to achieve criticality by July 4, 2026. Some have questioned whether this target is feasible.
M. T. Farmer, K. R. Robb, M. W. Francis
Nuclear Technology | Volume 196 | Number 3 | December 2016 | Pages 446-460
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NT16-44
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Lower head failure and corium-concrete interaction were predicted to occur at Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1 (1F1) by several different system-level code analyses, including MELCOR v2.1 and MAAP5. Although these codes capture a wide range of accident phenomena, they do not contain detailed models for ex-vessel core melt behavior. However, specialized codes exist for the analysis of ex-vessel melt spreading (e.g., MELTSPREAD) and long-term debris coolability (e.g., CORQUENCH). On this basis, an analysis has been carried out to further evaluate ex-vessel behavior for 1F1 using MELTSPREAD and CORQUENCH. The best-estimate melt pour conditions predicted by MELCOR v2.1 and MAAP5 were used as input. MELTSPREAD was then used to predict the spatially dependent melt conditions and the extent of spreading during relocation from the vessel. This information was then used as input for the long-term debris coolability analysis with CORQUENCH, which is reported in a companion paper.