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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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World Bank, IAEA partner to fund nuclear energy
The World Bank and the International Atomic Energy Agency signed an agreement last week to cooperate on the construction and financing of advanced nuclear projects in developing countries, marking the first partnership since the bank ended its ban on funding for nuclear energy projects.
N. E. Stauff, M. J. Driscoll, B. Forget, P. Hejzlar
Nuclear Technology | Volume 170 | Number 3 | June 2010 | Pages 371-382
Technical Paper | Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT10-1
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Breeding blankets are of interest for a sodium fast reactor (SFR) as they allow for small cores to have positive breeding gains. However, because they breed very high-quality plutonium, core designers are not currently encouraged to employ blankets. After verifying that the ERANOS code was in good agreement with BGcore, a Monte Carlo-based depletion system, it was shown that an SFR blanket design could breed less attractive plutonium than light water reactor (LWR)-bred plutonium for making a nuclear explosive device. Minor actinide (MA) doping and moderator addition were the two options studied. This study shows that it is possible to build an SFR with a secure blanket with MA addition; at steady state MAs from approximately 1.5 LWRs are required per SFR [both rated at 1 GW(electric)].