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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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Deep Space: The new frontier of radiation controls
In commercial nuclear power, there has always been a deliberate tension between the regulator and the utility owner. The regulator fundamentally exists to protect the worker, and the utility, to make a profit. It is a win-win balance.
From the U.S. nuclear industry has emerged a brilliantly successful occupational nuclear safety record—largely the result of an ALARA (as low as reasonably achievable) process that has driven exposure rates down to what only a decade ago would have been considered unthinkable. In the U.S. nuclear industry, the system has accomplished an excellent, nearly seamless process that succeeds to the benefit of both employee and utility owner.
David L. Aumiller, Michael J. Meholic
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 184 | Number 3 | November 2016 | Pages 453-462
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE16-42
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
COBRA-IE is a three-field subchannel analysis code under development at the Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory. The analysis code is being developed as a general-purpose thermal-hydraulic analysis tool with an emphasis on use in an integrated code system for analyzing postulated large-break loss-of-coolant accidents.
The overall accuracy of programs such as COBRA-IE is tied to the ability to predict void fraction. As such, a comprehensive assessment has been made using one-dimensional void fraction data. The results of this assessment are provided in this paper. The assessment utilizes data from nine different experimental facilities. It includes data from air-water and steam-water facilities, heated flow, adiabatic flow, subcooled boiling, saturated boiling, cocurrent upflow, and cocurrent downflow. Approximately 1100 data points are evaluated and included in this assessment. Overall, COBRA-IE was able to predict the void fraction with an average error (predicted − experimental) of less than 0.04. Plots describing the relationship between the error in the prediction and parameters such as pressure and flow are also provided.
