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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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Ho Nieh nominated to the NRC
Nieh
President Trump recently nominated Ho Nieh for the role of commissioner in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission through the remainder of a term that will expire June 30, 2029.
Nieh has been the vice president of regulatory affairs at Southern Nuclear since 2021, though he is currently working as a loaned executive at the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations, where he has been for more than a year.
Nieh’s experience: Nieh started his career at the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, where he worked primarily as a nuclear plant engineer and contributed as a civilian instructor in the U.S. Navy’s Nuclear Power Program.
From there, he joined the NRC in 1997 as a project engineer. In more than 19 years of service at the organization, he served in a variety of key leadership roles, including division director of Reactor Projects, division director of Inspection and Regional Support, and director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
Kookhyun Jeong, Yong Yang
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 199 | Number 5 | May 2025 | Pages 817-828
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2024.2389601
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Fuel-cladding chemical interaction is recognized as a significant challenge in metallic fuel/steel cladding systems due to the formation of low-melting-point intermetallic eutectic compounds between fuel and steel cladding constituents. To address this, the study explores diffusion barrier coatings applied via metal-organic chemical vapor deposition, chosen for its low processing temperature under 600°C, thus preventing thermal degradation of steel cladding. In this study, we successfully developed thin, dense coatings ranging from a few to several micrometers in thickness. These coatings are composed predominantly of a mixture of V2C and vanadium carbide (VC) phases. Following the coating process, the T91 ferritic/martensitic (F/M) steel substrates remained intact with no noticeable decarburization or reduction in microhardness near the VC coating. Further testing through diffusion couple experiments at 550°C for 100 h revealed that an 8-µm-thick VC coating layer can effectively prevent interdiffusion between cerium and T91 F/M steel. Leveraging optimized processing conditions on flat coupon samples, this deposition was also applied to an archived EBR-II HT-9 steel cladding. These results demonstrate promising applications for sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs).
