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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.
Man-Shik Song, Paul J. Turinsky
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 101 | Number 2 | February 1989 | Pages 117-132
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE89-A23601
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An improved understanding of boiling film dynamics as it relates to energetic steam explosions during degraded core conditions in light water reactors is developed. Several models have been developed and used to predict the characteristics of film boiling when a molten fuel drop suddenly comes into contact with water. An incompressible model and an approximate compressible model, utilizing Gilmore’s equation, are developed consistent with past works and are determined to have several shortfalls. To improve the treatment of compressibility effects, a model employing Lagrang-ian equations is developed. This improved model predicts that applying an external pressure pulse can make a stable film go unstable and decreasing water subcooling stabilizes film oscillations; both predictions are consistent with experimental observations. However, the improved model predicts stable film boiling at low melt temperatures that cannot support such boiling. Modeling Taylor surface instability effects at the water/steam interface indicates that the surface area change due to this surface instability can stabilize the film oscillations.