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Nuclear Installations Safety
Devoted specifically to the safety of nuclear installations and the health and safety of the public, this division seeks a better understanding of the role of safety in the design, construction and operation of nuclear installation facilities. The division also promotes engineering and scientific technology advancement associated with the safety of such facilities.
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2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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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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Can hydrogen be the transportation fuel in an otherwise nuclear economy?
Let’s face it: The global economy should be powered primarily by nuclear power. And it probably will by the end of this century, with a still-significant assist from renewables and hydro. Once nuclear systems are dominant, the costs come down to where gas is now; and when carbon emissions are reduced to a small portion of their present state, it will become obvious that most other sources are only good in niche settings. I mean, why use small modular reactors to load-follow when they can just produce that power instead of buffering it?
Naoyuki Kisohara, Takeshi Moribe, Takaaki Sakai
Nuclear Technology | Volume 164 | Number 1 | October 2008 | Pages 103-118
Technical Paper | Icapp '06 | doi.org/10.13182/NT08-A4012
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A sodium-heated steam generator (SG) being studied in Japan for a future commercialized fast reactor is a double-wall straight tube type. The SG is large to reduce its manufacturing cost by economies of scale. This paper addresses the multidimensional distributions of the temperature and the flow in the SG. Large heat exchanger components are prone to have nonuniform flow and temperature distributions. These maldistributions cause tubes to have thermal expansion mismatch, which might lead to structural issues such as tube buckling or tube-to-tube-sheet junction failure in straight tube SGs. The temperature profiles in the SG are examined by numerical methods, and flow distribution control devices are optimized to prevent these issues. The calculation model of the SG consists of two parts: a sodium inlet distribution plenum (the inlet plenum) and a heat transfer tube bundle region (the bundle). The flow and temperature distributions in the inlet plenum and the bundle are evaluated by the three-dimensional code FLUENT and the two-dimensional code MSG, respectively. The thermal loads on the tubes are evaluated by the structural code FINAS based on the temperature distributions. These codes have revealed that the sodium flow is distributed uniformly by the flow distributors and that the thermal loads remain within the allowable range for the structural integrity of the tubes and the junctions. An inlet plenum water test and an SG experiment to examine thermal-hydraulic performance are planned. These tests will reveal the flow and temperature distributions in the SG and verify the computer calculation results.