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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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DOE fast tracks test reactor projects: What to know
The Department of Energy today unveiled 10 companies racing to bring test reactors online by next year to meet Trump's deadline of next Independance Day, leveraging a new DOE pathway that allows reactor authorization outside national labs. As first outlined in one of the four executive orders on nuclear energy released by President Trump on May 23 and in the request for applications for the Reactor Pilot Program released June 18, the companies must use their own money and sites—and DOE authorization—to get reactors operating. What they won’t need is a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license.
R. F. Mattas, D. L. Smith
Nuclear Technology | Volume 39 | Number 2 | July 1978 | Pages 186-198
Technical Paper | Material | doi.org/10.13182/NT78-A32077
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A computer model based on available materials property data has been developed to predict the lifetimes of first wall structural materials under a variety of reactor conditions. The model combines the materials property data with the appropriate ranges of limiting criteria to establish design lifetimes as functions of such relevant parameters as temperature and integrated neutron wall loading. Empirical equations developed from existing literature data were used to interpolate and extrapolate the required materials properties over the desired ranges. The present effort has concentrated on the evaluation of two candidate structural materials, namely, Type 316 stainless steel and a vanadium-base alloy (V-15% Cr-5% Ti). Curves have been derived that show the estimated lifetime and life-limiting property as a function of temperature for a specified set of design criteria, e.g., maximum swelling of 4%, minimum uniform elongation of 1%, and total creep strain of <1%, for an applied stress of 103 MPa (15 ksi). The results obtained indicate a much longer design lifetime for the vanadium-base alloy than for stainless steel under the conditions of interest. The computational model has been incorporated into the Tokamak Power Plant Systems Program at Argonne National Laboratory.