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Going Nuclear: Notes from the officially unofficial book tour
I work in the analytical labs at one of Europe’s oldest and largest nuclear sites: Sellafield, in northwestern England. I spend my days at the fume hood front, pipette in one hand and radiation probe in the other (and dosimeter pinned to my chest, of course). Outside the lab, I have a second job: I moonlight as a writer and public speaker. My new popular science book—Going Nuclear: How the Atom Will Save the World—came out last summer, and it feels like my life has been running at full power ever since.
Muhammad Ishaq, Muhammad Zaman, Muhammad Ilyas, Alam Nawaz Khan Wardag, Mansoor H. Inayat
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 198 | Number 12 | December 2024 | Pages 2382-2402
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2024.2328967
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Innovative reactor designs like small modular reactors (SMRs) have the potential to operate in a natural circulation (NC) boiling mode, but this mode introduces flow oscillations that pose a risk to nuclear safety. Therefore, it is essential to investigate the effects of various parameters on these oscillations. This study focuses on predicting the operational behavior of the Integral PWR-type SMR Test Rig (iPSTR) when operating in NC and subcooled boiling conditions. The iPSTR replicates an NC boiling loop with a vertical heater, vertical cooler configuration, high-temperature and high-pressure conditions, and nonuniform diameter structure. Using the RELAP5 model, thermal-hydraulic simulations were performed to anticipate how varying degrees of inlet subcooling affects parameters such as mass flow rate and void fraction, with experimental data used to validate the model’s accuracy. This investigation covers a range of process conditions, including system pressures from 5 to 20 bars, core input power varying from 8.5 to 14.5 kW, and degrees of inlet subcooling from 1 to 49 K. The results reveal that increasing input power leads to higher average mass flow rates, while at a constant system pressure, higher input power stabilizes flow rates at higher degrees of inlet subcooling. Moreover, reduced and more consistent oscillation amplitudes and frequencies at higher core power result at more elevated system pressure, enhancing the safety of the iPSTR facility.