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DOE selects first companies for nuclear launch pad
The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy and the National Reactor Innovation Center have announced their first selections for the Nuclear Energy Launch Pad: three companies developing microreactors and one developing fuel supply.
The four companies—Deployable Energy, General Matter, NuCube Energy, and Radiant Industries—were selected from the initial pool of Reactor Pilot Program and Fuel Line Pilot Program applicants, the two precursor programs to the launch pad.
Drew E. Kornreich
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 115 | Number 1 | September 1993 | Pages 50-61
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE93-1
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Solutions of fissile materials are often encountered during spent-fuel reprocessing. To estimate the hazards from accidental criticalities in these solutions, models have been developed to understand better the dynamics involved. Accurate representation of reactivity feedback mechanisms is a crucial part of such models. Reactivity feedback from uniform volumetric solution expansion is studied. For faster transients, density redistribution may also occur because of a variation of nuclear energy as a function of position in the assembly. Neutronic spectral temperature reactivity effects are studied by creating temperature-dependent cross sections from ENDF/B-VI data. The volumetric and temperature reactivity feedback coefficients are determined for the CRAC, KEWB-5, SILENE, and SHEBA solution assemblies. Spectral temperature coefficients are also calculated for poisoned, unpoisoned, and reflected plutonium solutions. Feedback coefficients are seen to be functions of geometry and isotopic contents of the assemblies. Results for plutonium solutions agree with other calculations, which confirms the possibility of autocatalytic excursions in large, dilute solutions.