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Swiss nuclear power and the case for long-term operation
Designed for 40 years but built to last far longer, Switzerland’s nuclear power plants have all entered long-term operation. Yet age alone says little about safety or performance. Through continuous upgrades, strict regulatory oversight, and extensive aging management, the country’s reactors are being prepared for decades of continued operation, in line with international practice.
Brian F. Ives, Harry T. Cullinan, Jr., John Y. Yang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 18 | Number 1 | April 1973 | Pages 29-45
Technical Paper | Radiation | doi.org/10.13182/NT73-A16105
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A theoretical and experimental investigation of a radioactive fluidized bed chemical reactor is described. The fluidized particles are composed of radio-strontium silicate. The chemical system is the conversion of toluene to benzotrichloride. Experimental work defines the variables affecting bed porosity versus throughput at high bed expansions where significant radiation deposition could be achieved. Homogeneous fluidization is achieved by developing a classification technique to obtain a batch of radioactive microspheres with a narrow size and density distribution. Experimental data obtained with a semi-batch reactor using beta rays from a Van de Graaff generator lead to the conclusion that the reaction proceeds according to -order kinetics. The axial-dispersed plug flow model for three consecutive reactions and -order kinetics results in four simultaneous nonlinear second-order ordinary differential equations. These equations with the appropriate boundary conditions are solved numerically using a finite difference technique. An economically optimum reactor design utilizing recycle is presented for the last part of the plant.