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2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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Researchers use one-of-a-kind expertise and capabilities to test fuels of tomorrow
At the Idaho National Laboratory Hot Fuel Examination Facility, containment box operator Jake Maupin moves a manipulator arm into position around a pencil-thin nuclear fuel rod. He is preparing for a procedure that he and his colleagues have practiced repeatedly in anticipation of this moment in the hot cell.
Douglas S. Drumheller
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 72 | Number 3 | December 1979 | Pages 347-356
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE79-A20390
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In many cases, the mixing of drops of hot liquid fuel with a more volatile coolant results in stable film boiling about the drops. At some later time, a disturbance can fragment the drops. This fragmentation increases the contact area between the liquids and results in a violent vaporization of the coolant. An understanding of this fragmentation mechanism is crucial to the prediction of the likelihood of violent fuel-coolant interactions. In this work, a fragmentation mechanism is proposed. It is shown how moderate pressure disturbances can cause the symmetrical collapse of a vapor film and allow the coolant to impact the drop. The impact is shown to be of sufficient strength to fragment the drop. This model quantitatively predicts the conditions necessary to lead to extensive fragmentation.