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2026 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
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Breaking ground on a new approach to construction
The drive to Kairos Power’s reactor demonstration site in Oak Ridge, Tenn., is not only scenic—it’s historic. Nearly 85 years ago, roughly 30,000 construction workers transformed orchards and farmland into a key Manhattan Project site. Depending on your route, you may pass by one of the three gatehouses that were once military checkpoints controlling access to Atomic Energy Commission production facilities.
MANSON BENEDICT, RAYMOND T. SHANSTROM, STANLEY L. AMBERG, N. BARRIE MCLEOD, PAUL T. STERANKA
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 11 | Number 4 | December 1961 | Pages 386-396
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE61-A26040
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Examples are given of the application of computer code FUELCYC to fuel cycle analysis of pressurized water, organic moderated, and heavy water reactors. Properties of these reactors evaluated include the flux energy spectrum, changes in fuel composition and effective cross sections on irradiation, and changes in power density distribution. The effects of different initial fuel enrichments and six different fuel and poison management procedures on the average burnup of fuel, its maximum burnup, the peak-to-average power density ratio and fuel cycle costs are investigated. Fuel cycle costs may be reduced by having good neutron economy, high burnup, and a steady fueling procedure in which neutrons are not wasted in control poison. Of the fueling methods examined, out-in fueling, or some discontinuous approximation to it, seems best because of its flat power-density distribution and relatively low fuel cycle cost. Where mechanically feasible, bidirectional axial fueling is also advantageous because of the uniform fuel burnup it makes possible and its low fuel cycle cost.