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Division Spotlight
Robotics & Remote Systems
The Mission of the Robotics and Remote Systems Division is to promote the development and application of immersive simulation, robotics, and remote systems for hazardous environments for the purpose of reducing hazardous exposure to individuals, reducing environmental hazards and reducing the cost of performing work.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
Standards Program
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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Latest News
From South Korea to Belgium: Testing a high-density research reactor fuel
The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute has developed a high-density uranium silicide fuel designed to replace high-enriched uranium in research reactors. Recent irradiation tests appear to be successful, KAERI reports, which means the fuel could be commercialized to continue a key global nuclear nonproliferation effort—converting research reactors to run on low-enriched uranium fuel.
D. Guzonas, F. Brosseau, P. Tremaine, J. Meesungnoen, J.-P. Jay-Gerin
Nuclear Technology | Volume 179 | Number 2 | August 2012 | Pages 205-219
Technical Paper | Nuclear Plant Operations and Control | doi.org/10.13182/NT12-A14093
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The long-term viability of a supercritical water-cooled reactor (SCWR) will depend on the ability of designers and operators to control and maintain water chemistry conditions that will minimize corrosion and the transport of both corrosion products and radionuclides, at a pressure of 25 MPa and temperatures from 300°C to 625°C. To achieve this goal, the behavior of low concentrations of impurities such as transition metal corrosion products, chemistry control agents, impurities in the feedwater, and radionuclides (fission and activation products) in subcritical and supercritical water must be understood. A second key aspect of SCWR water chemistry control will be mitigation of the effects of water radiolysis. Preliminary studies suggest markedly different behavior than that predicted by extrapolating conventional water-cooled reactor behavior. The principal challenge in predicting corrosion and fission product transport is the lack of thermochemical and kinetic data above 300°C. Calculations with extrapolated data show that the formation of neutral complexes increases with temperature and can become important under near-critical and supercritical conditions. The most important region is from 300°C to 450°C, where the properties of water change dramatically and solvent compressibility effects exert a huge influence on solvation. The potential for increased transport and deposition of corrosion products (radioactive and inactive), leading to increased deposition on fuel cladding surfaces and increased out-of-core radiation fields and worker dose, must be assessed. The commonly used strategy of adding excess hydrogen at concentrations sufficient to suppress the net radiolytic production of primary oxidizing species may not be effective in an SCWR. Because direct measurement of the chemistry under such extreme conditions of temperature, pressure, and radiation fields is difficult, the most promising approach involves a combination of theoretical calculations, chemical models, and experimental work.