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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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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.
F. S. Gunnerson, D. T. Sparks, D. K. Kerwin
Nuclear Technology | Volume 52 | Number 1 | January 1981 | Pages 86-99
Technical Paper | Fuel | doi.org/10.13182/NT81-A32692
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An in-pile power-cooling-mismatch (PCM) test designed to investigate the behavior of a nine-rod PWR-type fuel bundle under intermittent and sustained periods of high temperature film boiling operation was recently conducted. Emphasis was placed on departure from nucleate boiling (DNB) and return to nucleate boiling (RNB), rod-to-rod interactions, and fuel rod failure. Results indicate that power-coolant variations induced DNB and RNB within the nine-rod test bundle in an irregular, nonsymmetric fashion. Direct rod-to-rod DNB, RNB, and fuel rod failure propagation were not observed. However, a single rod-to-rod interaction was suspected, that being RNB of one rod abetting the onset of DNB on an adjacent rod. This interaction was possibly due to hydraulic coupling. The power and inlet coolant conditions at the onset of DNB on the center fuel rod were indistinguishable from previously obtained PCM data for separately shrouded test rods; thus, the single-rod data base may be applicable for assessing the onset of DNB conditions of an interior fuel rod within a small cluster.