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High-temperature plumbing and advanced reactors
The use of nuclear fission power and its role in impacting climate change is hotly debated. Fission advocates argue that short-term solutions would involve the rapid deployment of Gen III+ nuclear reactors, like Vogtle-3 and -4, while long-term climate change impact would rely on the creation and implementation of Gen IV reactors, “inherently safe” reactors that use passive laws of physics and chemistry rather than active controls such as valves and pumps to operate safely. While Gen IV reactors vary in many ways, one thing unites nearly all of them: the use of exotic, high-temperature coolants. These fluids, like molten salts and liquid metals, can enable reactor engineers to design much safer nuclear reactors—ultimately because the boiling point of each fluid is extremely high. Fluids that remain liquid over large temperature ranges can provide good heat transfer through many demanding conditions, all with minimal pressurization. Although the most apparent use for these fluids is advanced fission power, they have the potential to be applied to other power generation sources such as fusion, thermal storage, solar, or high-temperature process heat.1–3
H. Ahmadi, M. Rahgoshay, A. Heydarinasab
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 199 | Number 7 | July 2025 | Pages 1263-1272
Note | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2024.2440684
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Positron emission tomography (PET) is an advanced imaging tool for the diagnosis and staging of cancer tumors. This method is based on the detection of increased glycolytic activity in malignant cells, in which cell glucose is concentrated because of an increase in membrane glucose transporters, as well as an increase in some key enzymes, such as hexokinase, which are responsible for glucose phosphorylation. Therefore, for this type of imaging, drugs containing glucose are needed. On the other hand, with the expansion of the use of PET imaging devices, the need for drugs for this type of imaging method [fluorodeoxyglucose drug (FDG)] has also increased significantly. FDG is a drug tracer used in the medical imaging technique of PET. The production of FDG requires the production of 18F and, as a result, reaching 18O with a richness of more than 95%. There are various methods to produce oxygen with high richness. Among these methods, using a distillation column is a suitable method to produce oxygen, which has low efficiency and high production cost. Optimization of the distillation column can reduce the cost of producing high-rich oxygen. Numerical methods are one of the useful techniques for optimization. In this study, the distillation column has been computerized using mathematical models, and then by changing the number of inputs, including the height of the pipes, the temperature of the input of the distillation column has been optimized. Results show that the maximum separation of the desired isotope concentration in the distillation tower depends on the type of isotope desired and the condition of the device and is independent of the type of feed. Also, the input feed has no effect on the concentration distribution.