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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.
L. Leibowitz, L. Baker, Jr., J. G. Schnizlein, L. W. Mishler, J. D. Bingle
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 15 | Number 4 | April 1963 | Pages 395-403
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE63-A26456
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Measurements have been made of the maximum burning temperatures and the propagation velocities along strips of uranium and zirconium foils and wires burning in air. Measurements were made using either a high-speed motion picture camera or a specially constructed two-slit electronic pyrometer. Burning temperatures and propagation velocities were measured as a funcion of both sample width and sample thickness. It was found that burning propagation velocities could be reasonably well described by a thermal propagation theory similar to one applied to flame propagation in gases. Variation of propagation rates with thickness and width of foil were correctly described by the theory. The results of the study are applicable to the combustion of isolated pieces of uranium and zirconium scrap but not directly to the more complicated case of the combustion of large aggregates. Some of the additional factors involved in large aggregate fires are discussed.