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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.
Richard G. Bock, John D. Duncan, James E. Leonard
Nuclear Technology | Volume 11 | Number 4 | August 1971 | Pages 532-543
Technical Paper | Symposium on Fuel Rod Failure and Its Effect / Fuel | doi.org/10.13182/NT71-A30850
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The first full-length, electrically heated, 49-rod, Zircaloy-clad simulated BWR fuel bundle with internally pressurized rods was spray cooled under loss-of-coolant conditions. The heater rods were internally pressurized with argon to simulate fission product gas inventory. Many perforations and severe rod distortions occurred near the center of the bundle. Nevertheless, spray cooling, initiated at a maximum cladding temperature of 1920°F, was effective in limiting cladding temperatures to ≈2250°F. Electrical failure of 10 heater rods complicated interpretation of the results, and it is estimated that the maximum temperature would have been ≈2360°F had the failures not occurred. The maximum coolant flow area reduction around a single rod caused by local perforations was 50%. However, this flow area reduction did not appreciably impair the effectiveness of the spray cooling system. That is, analysis performed using current General Electric (GE) loss-of-coolant technique s and heat transfer coefficients derived from stainless-steel-clad bundle tests predicted the maximum cladding temperature to within 20°F.