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2026 Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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The two reactors at Dominion Energy’s Surry plant are among the oldest in the U.S. nuclear fleet. Yet when the plant celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2023, staff could raise a toast to the future. Surry was one of the first plants to file a subsequent license renewal (SLR) application, and in May 2021, it became official: the plant was licensed to operate for a full 80 years, extending its reactors’ lifespans into 2052 and 2053.
C. Vaglio-Gaudard, A. Santamarina, P. Blaise, O. Litaize, A. Lyoussi, G. Noguère, J. M. Ruggieri, J. F. Vidal
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 166 | Number 2 | October 2010 | Pages 89-106
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE09-91
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Programme d'Etude du Réflecteur Lourd dans Eole (PERLE) critical experiment was recently performed in the EOLE zero-power reactor to provide representative experimental data for heavy stainless steel (SS) reflector physics. It is a UO2 regular 27 × 27 square core surrounded by a 22-cm-thick SS block. The neutron source presents the same spectrum as Gen-III pressurized water reactors (PWRs).The analysis of measurements with the TRIPOLI4 reference Monte Carlo calculations notably aims at validating 56Fe nuclear data in the JEFF3.1.1 library. Large uncertainties are still associated with 56Fe nuclear data, in particular for the inelastic cross section ([approximate]10% at 1) since considerable discrepancies have been observed between various international evaluations of the inelastic level.This paper is dedicated to the analysis of the PERLE experiment. The reactivity worth of the PERLE heavy reflector was measured and compared with the efficiency of both the water reflector and the standard PWR reflector (2-cm-SS baffle). The radial power distribution at the core/reflector interface was measured by direct gamma spectrometry on fuel pins. The TRIPOLI4 analysis gives satisfactory results. The flux attenuation with SS penetration was measured by miniature fission chambers and metallic activation foils, using the fast, intermediate, and thermal response function. Interpretation of flux attenuation measurements shows calculation/experiment discrepancies within the experimental uncertainty. These results highlight that the 56Fe cross sections in the JEFF3.1.1 library have been evaluated accurately.
