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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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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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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.
J. C. Manaranche, D. Mangin, L. Maubert, G. Colomb, G. Poullot
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 71 | Number 2 | August 1979 | Pages 154-163
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE79-4
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The development of pressurized water reactors and boiling water reactors in the world necessitates complete critical experiments on this type of fuel for the validation of the methods used in criticality calculations and to resolve the various related problems. This paper presents the first results obtained at the Critical Mass Laboratory at Valduc during critical approaches achieved with lattices of 4.75-wt%-235U-enriched UO2 rods in water. Four square pitches (12.6, 16.0, 21.0, and 25.2 mm) and three triangular pitches (13.5, 17.2, and 22.6 mm) have been studied, and various configurations with fuel rods removed were investigated. Benchmark calculations are presented.