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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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New coolants, new fuels: A new generation of university reactors
Here’s an easy way to make aging U.S. power reactors look relatively youthful: Compare them (average age: 43) with the nation’s university research reactors. The 25 operating today have been licensed for an average of about 58 years.
P. A. Pizzica, P. B. Abramson
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 64 | Number 2 | October 1977 | Pages 465-479
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE77-A27383
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The computer code EPIC models fuel and coolant motion that results from internal fuel pin pressure (from fission gas or fuel vapor) and/or from the generation of sodium vapor pressures in the coolant channel subsequent to pin failure in a liquid-metal fast breeder reactor. The modeling includes the ejection of molten fuel from the pin into a coolant channel with any amount of voiding through a clad rip which may be of any length or which may expand with time. One-dimensional Eulerian hydrodynamics is used to model both the motion of fuel and fission gas inside a molten fuel cavity and the mixture of two-phase sodium and fission gas in the channel. Motion of molten fuel particles in the coolant channel is tracked with a particle-in-cell technique.