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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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A new ANSI/ANS standard for liquid metal fire protection published
ANSI/ANS-54.8-2025, Liquid Metal Fire Protection in LMR Plants, received approval from the American National Standards Institute on September 2 and is now available for purchase.
The 2025 edition is a reinvigoration of the withdrawn ANS-54.8-1988 of the same title. The Advanced Reactor Codes and Standards Collaborative (ARCSC) identified the need for a current version of the standard via an industry survey.
Typical liquid metal reactor designs use liquid sodium as the coolant for both the primary and intermediate heat-transport systems. In addition, liquid sodium and NaK (a mixture of sodium and potassium that is liquid at room temperature) are often used in auxiliary heat-removal systems. Since these liquid metals can react readily with oxygen, water, and other compounds, special precautions must be taken in the design, construction, testing, and maintenance of the sodium/NaK systems to ensure that the potential for leakage is very small.
J. R. L. de Ladonchamps, L. M. Grossman
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 12 | Number 2 | February 1962 | Pages 238-242
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE62-A26063
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The space energy distribution of neutrons diffusing in a source-free, nonabsorbing medium possessing a temperature gradient is obtained by solving the appropriate Boltzmann equation to a second order approximation using the expansion technique of Chapman and Enskog. The medium is assumed to possess a locally Maxwellian energy distribution and the neutron scattering is taken to be isotropic in the laboratory system of coordinates. It is found that the neutron current is increased in the direction of a negative temperature gradient and the “thermal diffusion” transport coefficient is evaluated as a function of the mass of the moderator nuclei. For the case of infinite mass nuclei, the results correspond to the kinetic theory model of a Knudsen gas in a binary Lorentzian gas mixture. An analysis of the results is carried out in the framework of the thermodynamic theory of coupled irreversible processes.