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Jeff Place on INPO’s strategy for industry growth
As executive vice president for industry strategy at the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations, Jeff Place leads INPO’s industry-facing work, engaging directly with chief nuclear officers.
John K. Long
Nuclear Technology | Volume 10 | Number 1 | January 1971 | Pages 17-21
Technical Paper and Note | Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT71-A30943
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Except for irradiation experiments, EBR-II is fueled with a metal alloy of uranium and fission products called fissium. At room temperature and up to 550°C the metallurgical phase of the fuel corresponds to the phase designated as alpha uranium. Recent operations with EBR-II up to 62.5 MW have raised some fuel temperatures to levels at which the metal fuel undergoes a phase change from the alpha phase to the gamma phase. The gamma phase of fissium has a significantly lower density, which is reflected in the calculated power coefficient of the reactor. A calculation of the internal fuel temperature, taking into account the variation of thermal conductivity with irradiation-induced swelling, has led to a calculated effect of the gamma phase on the power coefficient. This calculated effect agrees with observations during reactor operation.