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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.
Mohamed A. Abdou, Jungchung Jung
Nuclear Technology | Volume 35 | Number 1 | August 1977 | Pages 51-79
Technical Paper | Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT77-A31850
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Detailed nuclear analysis of a reference conceptual design for a tokamak experimental power reactor (EPR) is presented. The reference EPR has a 6.25-m major radius and a 2.1-m minor radius circular plasma with a nominal neutron wall loading of 0.5 MW/m2. A 0.28-m-thick blanket of stainless steel surrounds a stainless-steel vacuum vessel. The inner shield consists of stainless steel and B4C and is 0.58 m thick. The 0.97-m-thick outer shield employs lead mortar, stainless steel, and graphite. The neutronics results in the first wall and blanket vary significantly in the poloidal direction due to an outward shift in the deuterium-tritium neutron source distribution and the toroidal curvature. The infinite cylinder approximation overestimates response rates in the first wall compared with toroidal geometry calculations. Neutral beam lines, vacuum ducts, and other penetrations of the blanket and bulk shield represent large (∼0.6- to 1.0-m2 cross section) streaming paths for neutrons and require special shielding. A special 0.75-m-thick annular shield surrounds the neutral beam duct after it exits from the bulk shield and extends beyond the toroidal field coil and out to the beam injectors. A pneumatically operated movable shield plug, opening during the pumpdown phase and closing during the plasma burn, is selected as the principal design option for shielding the evacuation ducts.