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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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Latest News
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.
J. R. Seeker, R. W. Miller, L. T. Mayhue, R. N. Milanova
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 121 | Number 1 | September 1995 | Pages 142-152
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE95-A24136
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Advanced fuel, burnable absorber, and control rod designs along with advanced fuel management and power distribution control strategies will be implemented in the first operating cycle of the Czech Republic’s Temelin VVER-1000 nuclear power plants. These improvements increase safety margins, enhance operability, and improve fuel efficiency. The Westinghouse WANTAGE 6 fuel assembly design incorporates many proven advanced fuel and core design features used extensively in western pressurized water reactors. The fuel assembly incorporates mixing vane structural grids, radial enrichment zoning, ZrB2 integral fuel burnable absorbers, axial blankets, and Zircaloy guide thimbles and structural grids. Low-leakage loading patterns are also used to reduce radial neutron leakage. The rod cluster control assembly (RCCA) design incorporates two absorber materials. The absorber tip uses silver-indium-cadmium material while the remainder of the absorber material is B4C enriched in 10B. This design increases control rod worth as well as the usable lifetime of RCCA. The Westinghouse constant axial offset control operating strategy, improved RCCA design, modified RCCA overlap, and replacement of part-length RCCA by full-length RCCA are used to improve the axial power distribution control capability for VVER-1000 reactors. These design improvements provide thermal margin benefits, increase shutdown margin by almost 1.0% Ap, reduce fuel cycle costs by nearly 30%, and improve axial power distribution control.
