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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Powering the future: How the DOE is fueling nuclear fuel cycle research and development
As global interest in nuclear energy surges, the United States must remain at the forefront of research and development to ensure national energy security, advance nuclear technologies, and promote international cooperation on safety and nonproliferation. A crucial step in achieving this is analyzing how funding and resources are allocated to better understand how to direct future research and development. The Department of Energy has spearheaded this effort by funding hundreds of research projects across the country through the Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP). This initiative has empowered dozens of universities to collaborate toward a nuclear-friendly future.
M. Ishii, H. K. Fauske
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 84 | Number 2 | June 1983 | Pages 131-146
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE83-A17719
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
For certain postulated severe accident conditions such as a loss of piping integrity and a loss of heat sink in connection with liquid-metal fast breeder reactor safety analysis, the process of decay heat removal can lead to coolant boiling. For such low-heat-flux/low-flow conditions, a dryout or critical heat flux criterion is required in order to assess the potential for fuel pin failure and melting. Computer codes and full-scale experimental data are not available to completely address this problem at this time. Based on the interpretation of available experimental data and new analyses, it is concluded that a typical subassembly can be safely cooled (avoid dryout) under natural convection conditions for heat fluxes below ∼8 to 10% of the average nominal power; i.e., decay heat power levels can be safely accommodated in the natural convective regime. Furthermore, since this coolability limit is predicted to be rather insensitive to the subcooling value, it follows that the safety case relative to decay heat removal for an intact core geometry also becomes essentially independent of detailed accident conditions such as the potential for temporary stagnated flow or inlet flow reversal conditions.