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Launching into tomorrow: NRIC guides new era of research and deployment
In June 2025, the Department of Energy announced the Reactor Pilot Program, an authorization pathway that allowed reactor developers to partner with the DOE to get first-of-a-kind (FOAK) reactors built and tested. Soon after, the DOE rolled out a complementary Fuel Line Pilot Program, which aimed to fast-track fuel projects. In all, 20 projects were accepted into the new programs.
Manuel G. Vigil, Amado A. Trujillo, H. Richard Yoshimura
Nuclear Technology | Volume 61 | Number 3 | June 1983 | Pages 514-520
Technical Paper | New Directions in Nuclear Energy with Emphasis on Fuel Cycles / Radioactive Waste Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT83-A33176
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Full-scale experimental measurements on the thermal effects of torch fires on a large spent nuclear fuel shipping cask have been obtained. The measured temperature data in the various materials of the multilayered cask are unique, since no torch tests have been previously performed on a cask. These data were obtained during a series of four torch tests that simulate a situation in which the relief valve of a liquefied gas tank railcar has been opened and the contents are vented and ignited so that the resultant torch impinges on the cask. An existing spent fuel cask was modified, and temperature data were obtained in the various materials of the multilayered cask using stainless-steel sheathed thermocouples. Results of these tests indicated that the surface temperatures for the cask with a voided neutron shield were about twice as high as those for a cask having a neutron shield filled with water. The wood in the impact limiter effectively prevented thermal penetration, limiting the temperature rise of the inner cavity to only 13°C in test 4. The maximum temperature rise of the inner cavity surface, which occurred in test 3 with the neutron shield voided, was 80°C. These thermal data will be used to refine a transient thermal analytical model, which can then be utilized to predict the thermal response of other nuclear material shipping system designs subjected to torch fire environments.