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2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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RIC session focuses on interagency collaboration
Attendees at last week’s 2026 Regulatory Information Conference, hosted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, saw extensive discussion of new reactor technologies, uprates, fusion, multiunit deployments, supply chain, and much more.
With the industry in a state of rapid evolution, there was much to discuss. Connected to all these topics was one central theme: the ongoing changes at the NRC. With massively shortened timelines, the ADVANCE Act and Executive Order 14300, and new interagency collaboration and authorization pathways in mind, speakers spent much of the RIC exploring what the road ahead looks like for the NRC.
Young Min Kim, Moon Sung Cho
Nuclear Technology | Volume 170 | Number 1 | April 2010 | Pages 231-243
Technical Paper | Special Issue on the 2008 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants / Fuel Cycle and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT10-A9461
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The COPA-FPREL computer code has been developed to estimate the releases of gaseous and metallic fission products (FPs) from high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) fuel into coolant. The COPA-FPREL code treats FP release from a coated fuel particle (CFP), diffusion in a fuel element, and leakage into the coolant considering the temperature distribution within a CFP and a fuel element. The code uses a finite difference method to calculate FP migration and heat transfer. In the finite difference method, the kernel, buffer, and coating layers of a CFP and the fuel element are divided into small finite difference intervals. A steady-state heat transfer equation and the Fickian diffusion equation are applied to these intervals. A relatively high diffusion coefficient is assigned to the buffer and the broken coating layers to describe fast diffusion in those regions. Sorption equilibrium is set up between the concentration at the fuel element surface facing the coolant and the vapor pressure at the graphite side of the boundary layer that forms on the fuel element surface. Mass transfer occurs through the boundary layer into the bulk coolant. In a prismatic HTGR, sorption equilibrium is assumed to form between the concentrations at the compact and structural graphite surfaces and the vapor pressure in the gap between the compact and the structural graphite. For 137Cs, 90Sr, 110mAg, and 85Kr isotopes, the fractional releases from a CFP, a pebble, and a fuel block during simulated heating processes and reactor operations were calculated using COPA-FPREL.