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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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New coolants, new fuels: A new generation of university reactors
Here’s an easy way to make aging U.S. power reactors look relatively youthful: Compare them (average age: 43) with the nation’s university research reactors. The 25 operating today have been licensed for an average of about 58 years.
D. S. Kopecki, K. M. Ralls, E. Linn Draper, Jr.
Nuclear Technology | Volume 29 | Number 1 | April 1976 | Pages 98-107
Technical Paper | Material | doi.org/10.13182/NT76-A16294
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Composition changes that occur during neutron bombardment have been calculated for the first wall of a hypothetical fusion reactor. The first wall materials studied are pure niobium, zirconium, molybdenum, and vanadium, and some of their binary alloys. Two integrated neutron flux intensities, 3.8 × 1014 n/(cm2 sec) and 3.8 × 1015 n/(cm2 sec) up to a fluence of 3.6 × 1023 n/cm2, have been used in the calculations of the first three materials. In addition, the composition as a function of fluence (maximum fluence =4.0 × 1023 n/cm2) has been calculated for a vanadium wall. Graphs for each material have been plotted to show the variation of composition as a function of time and/or fluence. Rates of production of hydrogen and helium have been calculated for all four materials; comparisons for niobium and vanadium walls with literature values show agreement that it is not poor. Furthermore, mixture diagrams have been constructed for two binary alloy systems, niobium-zirconium and niobium-vanadium, to relate composition at constant irradiation time to the initial composition.