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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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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.
Michael L. Corradini, Warren M. Rohsenow, Neil E. Todreas
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 73 | Number 3 | March 1980 | Pages 242-258
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE80-A19849
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A major portion of the safety analysis effort for the liquid-metal fast breeder reactor is involved in assessing the consequences of a hypothetical core disruptive accident. A postulated loss-of-flow transient without scram may produce a two-phase fuel source at high pressures. The heat transfer process between the fuel and the sodium coolant as it is ejected into the upper plenum is described in this study. One mechanism that can cause the coolant to become entrained in the two-phase fuel is Taylor instabilities. The characteristic size of the entrained coolant droplets is considered to be equal to the critical wavelength of a Taylor instability. Analysis of full-scale reactor conditions indicates that the dominant heat transfer mechanism is radiation. Also, if noncondensible gases are absent, fuel vapor condensation on the sodium coolant droplets is controlled by mass diffusion, hence the subsequent rate of coolant vaporization is small. The net effect of the heat transfer is to reduce the fuel vapor pressure and reduce the expansion work by a factor of 1.2 to 2.5. Small-scale simulant experiments utilizing refrigerants could confirm the fuel condensation/sodium vaporization behavior, while reactor material tests must be done to investigate the radiation heat transfer mechanism.