ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
Latest Magazine Issues
Jun 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
August 2026
Nuclear Technology
July 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Launching into tomorrow: NRIC guides new era of research and deployment
In June 2025, the Department of Energy announced the Reactor Pilot Program, an authorization pathway that allowed reactor developers to partner with the DOE to get first-of-a-kind (FOAK) reactors built and tested. Soon after, the DOE rolled out a complementary Fuel Line Pilot Program, which aimed to fast-track fuel projects. In all, 20 projects were accepted into the new programs.
Robert P. Wichner, Roger D. Spence
Nuclear Technology | Volume 70 | Number 3 | September 1985 | Pages 376-393
Technical Paper | Nuclear Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT85-A15964
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The degree of vaporization of light water reactor core materials was estimated using a highly idealized procedure involving (a) specification of the phases that are present for both structural and fuel material, (b) estimation of the vapor pressures exerted by the individual components of each phase, and (c) assuming a degree of vaporization of each phase constituent, allowing equilibration between gaseous and condensed species within the assumed pressure vessel volume. Using this procedure, the aerosol was estimated to consist mainly of silver, indium oxide, cesium hydroxide, and cadmium for pressurized water reactors and cesium hydroxide, cesium iodide, and tellurium for boiling water reactors. If boron is included in the thermodynamic estimate, then boron will significantly alter or dominate the composition of the aerosol in the form of boron oxide and cesium borate. The structural materials make up <9% of the aerosol at 36 to 57 kg, but this figure is in good agreement with estimates from severe accident sequence analysis studies (17 kg) and from Parker (10.7 kg). The SASCHA data are used in NUREG-0772 and give much higher estimates at 295 and 250 kg.