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Godzilla is helping ITER prepare for tokamak assembly
ITER employees stand by Godzilla, the most powerful commercially available industrial robot available. (Photo: ITER)
Many people are familiar with Godzilla as a giant reptilian monster that emerged from the sea off the coast of Japan, the product of radioactive contamination. These days, there is a new Godzilla, but it has a positive—and entirely fact-based—association with nuclear energy. This one has emerged inside the Tokamak Assembly Preparation Building of ITER in southern France.
M. J. Pettigrew
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 114 | Number 3 | July 1993 | Pages 179-189
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE93-A24032
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Under actual reactor conditions, the mechanical characteristics of nuclear fuel are particularly affected by thermal expansion of the fuel pellets. The results of an experiment studying the vibration behavior of nuclear fuel under reactor conditions are presented. The experiment was conducted in an experimental reactor in a two-phase flow test loop simulating a Canada deuterium uranium (CANDU) reactor fuel channel. The effect of fuel power in particular was investigated. The natural frequency of the fuel elements increased by ∼50% at full power. The effect of the fuel channel parameters such as flow velocity, steam quality, and pressure were also investigated.