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Swiss nuclear power and the case for long-term operation
Designed for 40 years but built to last far longer, Switzerland’s nuclear power plants have all entered long-term operation. Yet age alone says little about safety or performance. Through continuous upgrades, strict regulatory oversight, and extensive aging management, the country’s reactors are being prepared for decades of continued operation, in line with international practice.
B. A. Loomis, H. R. Thresh, G. L. Fogle, S. B. Gerber
Nuclear Technology | Volume 55 | Number 3 | December 1981 | Pages 617-627
Technical Paper | Material | doi.org/10.13182/NT81-A32807
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The design of a Zircaloy-2-clad uranium alloy (450 ppm carbon, 250 ppm iron, 350 ppm silicon) target that can function as a pulsed spallation neutron source on interaction of a pulsed 500-MeV proton beam with the uranium nuclei is determined by consideration of irradiation damage, energy deposition, and thermal cycling effects in the target. The designed target is comprised of eight watercooled Zircaloy-2-clad uranium alloy disks, 10 cm in diameter and 2. 7 cm thick operating at a maximum uranium alloy centerline temperature of 330°C. The production of the Zircaloy-2-clad uranium alloy disks involves remelting of the cast uranium alloy by the consumable electrode technique and bonding of the Zircaloy-2 to the uranium alloy by subjecting the composite to an isostatic-helium pressure at 840°C. The lifetime of the disks in the target before cracking of the Zircaloy-2 cladding owing to lowfrequency thermal cycling fatigue is estimated from stress calculations to be ∼500 days. The results of thermal cycling tests on a disk tend to confirm the results of the stress calculations.