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The mission of the Decommissioning and Environmental Sciences (DES) Division is to promote the development and use of those skills and technologies associated with the use of nuclear energy and the optimal management and stewardship of the environment, sustainable development, decommissioning, remediation, reutilization, and long-term surveillance and maintenance of nuclear-related installations, and sites. The target audience for this effort is the membership of the Division, the Society, and the public at large.
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2024 ANS Annual Conference
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Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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Proving DRACO will deliver
The United States is now closer than it has been in over five decades to launching the first nuclear thermal rocket into space, thanks to DRACO—the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Orbit.
Takehiko Nakamura, Kazuyuki Kusagaya, Toyoshi Fuketa, Hiroshi Uetsuka
Nuclear Technology | Volume 138 | Number 3 | June 2002 | Pages 246-259
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT02-A3292
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Boiling water reactor (BWR) fuel at 56 to 61 GWd/tonne U was pulse irradiated in the Nuclear Safety Research Reactor (NSRR) to investigate fuel behavior under cold startup reactivity-initiated accident conditions. Current Japanese 8 × 8 type Step II BWR fuel from Fukushima Daini Unit 2 was refabricated to short segments, and thermal energy from 272 to 586 J/g (65 to 140 cal/g) was promptly inserted to the test rods. Cladding deformation of the BWR fuel by the pulse irradiation was smaller than that of pressurized water reactor (PWR) fuels. However, cladding failure occurred in tests with fuel at burnup of 61 GWd/tonne U at fuel enthalpies of 260 to 360 J/g (62 to 86 cal/g) during the early stages of transients, while the cladding remained cool. The failure was comparable to the one observed in high-burnup PWR fuel tests, in which embrittled cladding with dense hydride precipitation near the outer surface was fractured due to pellet cladding mechanical interaction. Transient fission gas release by the pulse irradiation was ~9.6 to 17% depending on the peak fuel enthalpy.