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The Education, Training & Workforce Development Division provides communication among the academic, industrial, and governmental communities through the exchange of views and information on matters related to education, training and workforce development in nuclear and radiological science, engineering, and technology. Industry leaders, education and training professionals, and interested students work together through Society-sponsored meetings and publications, to enrich their professional development, to educate the general public, and to advance nuclear and radiological science and engineering.
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Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott Downtown
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High-temperature plumbing and advanced reactors
The use of nuclear fission power and its role in impacting climate change is hotly debated. Fission advocates argue that short-term solutions would involve the rapid deployment of Gen III+ nuclear reactors, like Vogtle-3 and -4, while long-term climate change impact would rely on the creation and implementation of Gen IV reactors, “inherently safe” reactors that use passive laws of physics and chemistry rather than active controls such as valves and pumps to operate safely. While Gen IV reactors vary in many ways, one thing unites nearly all of them: the use of exotic, high-temperature coolants. These fluids, like molten salts and liquid metals, can enable reactor engineers to design much safer nuclear reactors—ultimately because the boiling point of each fluid is extremely high. Fluids that remain liquid over large temperature ranges can provide good heat transfer through many demanding conditions, all with minimal pressurization. Although the most apparent use for these fluids is advanced fission power, they have the potential to be applied to other power generation sources such as fusion, thermal storage, solar, or high-temperature process heat.1–3
Wenqing Wu, Yongjun Wei, Jingwen Ba, Yan Shi
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 61 | Number 1 | January 2012 | Pages 81-85
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST12-A13340
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Protium-deuterium isotope separation and tritium enrichment experiments have been carried out under the condition of a total reflux cycle using a continuous twin-bed hydrogen isotope separation technique, i.e., a twin-bed periodically counter-current flow technique. Two beds were packed with Pd and LaNi4.7Al0.3, which show positive and inverse isotope effects, respectively. The separation efficiency was studied experimentally in terms of stoichiometry between hydrogen and adsorbents, cycles, and extraction ratio. The experimental results show that a steady distribution of hydrogen isotopes along the axial direction can be obtained within an operating period of three cycles and a 10% extraction ratio at a moderate H/Pd atomic ratio. The results of a tritium enrichment experiment carried out under optimized conditions indicate that good enrichment efficiency is possible using this method to separate a three-component gas when the extraction ratio is kept small. Since the column used in this experiment is relatively short, there is great potential for this method for meeting the requirements of large-scale operations if long columns or multi-bed combined systems are employed.