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IAEA looks at nuclear techniques for crop resilience
The International Atomic Energy Agency has launched a five-year coordinated research project (CRP) to strengthen plant health preparedness using nuclear and related technologies.
Wheat blast, potato late blight, potato bacterial wilt, and cassava witches broom disease can spread quickly across large areas of land, leading to severe yield losses in key crops for food security. Global trade and climate change have increased the likelihood of rapid, transboundary spread.
Sudarshan K. Loyalka
Nuclear Technology | Volume 57 | Number 2 | May 1982 | Pages 220-227
Technical Paper | Nuclear Fuel | doi.org/10.13182/NT82-A26284
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Computation of nuclear reactor fuel behavior under normal and off-normal conditions is influenced by gap conductance models. These models should provide accurate results for heat transfer for arbitrary gap widths and gas mixtures and should be based on considerations of the kinetic theory of gases. There has been considerable progress in the study of heat transfer in a simple gas for arbitrary Knudsen numbers (Kn = l/, where l is a mean-free-path and is the gap width) in recent years. Using these recent results, a simple expression for heat transfer in a gas mixture (enclosed between parallel plates) for an arbitrary Knudsen number has been constructed, and a new model for gap conductance has been proposed. The latter reproduces the free molecular (small gap, Kn ≫ 1) and the jump limits (large gaps, Kn ≪ 1) correctly, and it provides fairly accurate results for arbitrary gap widths. The new model is suitable for use in large fuel behavior computer programs.