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Developing a new regulatory framework for advanced reactors: Update on Part 53
White
The American Nuclear Society’s Risk-informed, Performance-based Principles and Policy Committee (RP3C) on March 29 held another presentation in its monthly Community of Practice (CoP) series. The presenter, Patrick White with the Nuclear Innovation Alliance (NIA), talked about the current status of efforts to develop a new regulatory framework for advanced reactors—known as 10 CFR Part 53 or simply Part 53. White serves as the research director of the NIA, where he leads their research as well as analysis-based stakeholder and policymaker engagement and education. White’s March 29 presentation is publicly available on YouTube and at ANS’s publication platform Nuclear Science and Technology Open Research (NSTOR).
RP3C chair N. Prasad Kadambi opened the CoP with brief introductory remarks about the RP3C before he welcomed White as the session’s presenter.
White covered three main topics: the history of the existing regulatory frameworks for new reactors, progress to date on the development of the Part 53 rule for advanced reactors, and the current status and next steps for the Part 53 rulemaking process.
K. L. Davis, D. L. Knudson, J. L. Rempe, J. C. Crepeau, S. Solstad
Nuclear Technology | Volume 191 | Number 1 | July 2015 | Pages 92-105
Technical Note | Materials for Nuclear Systems | doi.org/10.13182/NT14-60
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
New materials are being considered for fuel, cladding, and structures in next-generation and existing nuclear reactors. Such materials can undergo significant dimensional and physical changes during high-temperature irradiation. To accurately predict these changes, real-time data must be obtained under prototypic irradiation conditions for model development and validation. To provide these data, programs such as the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) National Scientific Users Facility (NSUF) have funded researchers at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) High Temperature Test Laboratory (HTTL) to develop several instrumented test rigs to obtain data in real time from specimens irradiated in well-controlled pressurized water reactor (PWR) coolant conditions in ATR. This technical note reports the status of INL efforts to develop and evaluate prototype test rigs that rely on linear variable differential transformers (LVDTs) in laboratory settings. Although similar LVDT-based test rigs have been deployed in lower-flux materials testing reactors (MTRs), this effort is unique because it relies on robust LVDTs that can withstand higher temperatures and higher fluxes than often found in other MTR irradiations. Specifically, the test rigs are designed for detecting changes in the length and diameter of specimens irradiated in ATR PWR loops. Once implemented, these test rigs will provide ATR users with unique capabilities that are sorely needed to obtain measurements, such as elongation caused by thermal expansion and/or creep loading, and diameter changes associated with fuel and cladding swelling, pellet-cladding interaction, and crud buildup.