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September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Remembering ANS member Gil Brown
Brown
The nuclear community is mourning the loss of Gilbert Brown, who passed away on July 11 at the age of 77 following a battle with cancer.
Brown, an American Nuclear Society Fellow and an ANS member for nearly 50 years, joined the faculty at Lowell Technological Institute—now the University of Massachusetts–Lowell—in 1973 and remained there for the rest of his career. He eventually became director of the UMass Lowell nuclear engineering program. After his retirement, he remained an emeritus professor at the university.
Sukesh Aghara, chair of the Nuclear Engineering Department Heads Organization, noted in an email to NEDHO members and others that “Gil was a relentless advocate for nuclear energy and a deeply respected member of our professional community. He was also a kind and generous friend—and one of the reasons I ended up at UMass Lowell. He served the university with great dedication. . . . Within NEDHO, Gil was a steady presence and served for many years as our treasurer. His contributions to nuclear engineering education and to this community will be dearly missed.”
D. R. Vissers, J. T. Holmes, P. A. Nelson, L. G. Bartholme
Nuclear Technology | Volume 12 | Number 2 | October 1971 | Pages 218-225
Technical Paper | Instrument | doi.org/10.13182/NT71-A31029
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A monitoring system has been developed for detecting leaks in LMFBR steam generators by the detection of the hydrogen produced in the sodium-water reaction. The principal capabilities of this detection system are rapid response, high sensitivity, and high stability and reliability. The monitoring system is based on the detection of a change in hydrogen concentration in sodium by measurement of the change in the rate of hydrogen diffusion through a nickel membrane immersed in the sodium. A vacuum is drawn on the membrane by an ion pump, and the partial pressure of hydrogen on the vacuum side, a measure of the hydrogen flux and the hydrogen activity in the sodium, is determined by the measurement of the current to the ion pump. The response time of the monitor depends chiefly on the hydrogen-diffusion properties of the nickel membrane. Transient-diffusion calculations indicate that 10 sec after a sudden change in the hydrogen concentration in the sodium, the change in the hydrogen flux from the membrane would be 70% of the eventual total change in flux for a 10-mil-thick nickel membrane at 500°C. With a stable high-voltage power supply, the noise on the recorded ion pump signal was <0.2% of the signal output for a hydrogen concentration in sodium of 0.1 to 1.0 ppm. This level of sensitivity and stability are adequate to detect a water leak from the steam generator into the LMFBR secondary sodium of 10−4 lb/sec at a sodium flow of 107 Ib/h in <1 min, if the hydrogen concentration in the secondary sodium is ∼0.1 ppm.
