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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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Deep Space: The new frontier of radiation controls
In commercial nuclear power, there has always been a deliberate tension between the regulator and the utility owner. The regulator fundamentally exists to protect the worker, and the utility, to make a profit. It is a win-win balance.
From the U.S. nuclear industry has emerged a brilliantly successful occupational nuclear safety record—largely the result of an ALARA (as low as reasonably achievable) process that has driven exposure rates down to what only a decade ago would have been considered unthinkable. In the U.S. nuclear industry, the system has accomplished an excellent, nearly seamless process that succeeds to the benefit of both employee and utility owner.
D. S. Rowe, R. N. Oehlberg
Nuclear Technology | Volume 54 | Number 2 | August 1981 | Pages 174-179
Technical Paper | Nuclear Fuel | doi.org/10.13182/NT81-A32733
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An analytical model for calculating gas flow and pressure inside a nuclear fuel rod is presented. Such a model is required to calculate the pressure loading of cladding during ballooning that could occur for postulated reactor accidents. The mathematical model uses a porous media (permeability) concept to define the resistance to gas flow along the fuel rod. Permeability is expressed in terms of the diametral gap between the fuel pellet and cladding. The mathematical equations are solved numerically by means of a fully implicit finite difference procedure believed to be new to fuel rod gas flow analysis. The solution is direct, fast, and does not require iteration. The analytical model was found to agree quite well with experimental results for transient gas flow in irradiated fuel rods.
