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Former Exelon CEO Chris Crane remembered for “transformational milestones”
Crane
Exelon announced that Chris Crane, the company’s former chief executive, passed away on Saturday in Chicago at the age of 65.
Crane served as the company’s president and CEO from 2012 until his retirement in December 2022. During his tenure, he steered the energy company through several transformational milestones, including the successful mergers with Constellation Energy in 2012 and Pepco Holdings in 2016, creating the largest utility business by customer count in the United States.
In 2022, with the spin-off of Constellation as the generation and retail side of energy business (with the largest U.S. nuclear fleet), Crane led the creation of a stand-alone transmission and delivery energy company.
Gokul Vasudevamurthy, Travis W. Knight
Nuclear Technology | Volume 163 | Number 2 | August 2008 | Pages 321-327
Technical Paper | Materials for Nuclear Systems | doi.org/10.13182/NT08-A3991
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Composite nuclear fuel consisting of uranium carbide (UC) fuel microspheres dispersed in an inert matrix is one of the fuel forms being actively considered for use in gas-cooled fast reactors (GFRs). High-density UC electrodes were required for the production of fuel microspheres by the rotating electrode method as an alternate method to the sol-gel particle production route. These compacts (to serve as electrodes) were fabricated by the exothermic combustion synthesis reaction of uranium hydride and graphite powders. Ignition of combustion synthesis was then followed by solid-state sintering at different temperatures of 1521, 1779, and 1929°C. During the course of testing the electrodes for microsphere production, it was found that the structural integrity of the electrodes and thus their suitability for microsphere production depended on the microstructural characteristics of the electrodes. Those produced at higher temperatures (1929°C) had higher densities (86.6% theoretical density) and lower open porosities (2.3%) and were shown to withstand the mechanical forces and thermal stresses imposed by this microsphere production method. The processing conditions were chosen to evaluate sintering characteristics of UC and to the extent possible to find the lowest possible process temperature. Here it is understood that the intended future GFR fuel form should involve recycled fuels including minor actinides (MAs). Concern over MA volatility in high-temperature processes thus motivated investigating the effects of lower processing temperatures. It was deduced from this study that a delicate balance exists between the processing parameters, the microstructural characteristics of the electrodes, and microsphere production.