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Division Spotlight
Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
Meeting Spotlight
2025 ANS Annual Conference
June 15–18, 2025
Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott Downtown
Standards Program
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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Latest News
NuScale Energy Exploration Center opens at George Mason University
NuScale Power Corporation has opened another Energy Exploration (E2) Center—this one at George Mason University in Arlington, Va. Just last month, a NuScale E2 Center opened at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, S.C. The newest E2 at George Mason is the company’s 11th center.
John Brian Ainscough*, David Norman Coucill, David Anthony Howl, Arne Jensen, Ib Misfeldt
Nuclear Technology | Volume 61 | Number 3 | June 1983 | Pages 521-532
Technical Paper | New Directions in Nuclear Energy with Emphasis on Fuel Cycles / Economic | doi.org/10.13182/NT83-A33177
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Duplex UO2 pellets, which consist of an outer enriched annulus and a depleted or natural core, can provide a solution to the problem of stress corrosion cracking failures, which have led to constraints being placed on ramp rates in power reactors. An analysis of the reactor physics and the performance of duplex pellets is presented in the context of a 17 × 17 pressurized water reactor fuel rod design. The study has been based on the particular type of duplex pellet in which the core and the annulus are physically separate; this is called “LOWI” after the Danish design. At low bumup, this fuel shows a significant improvement in power ramp performance compared with standard fuel. At higher bumup, the benefits are less certain but as the severity of the ramp will usually be less in high bumup fuel simply because of the reduced rating, the reduction in benefit may not be significant. If the gap between the core and annulus persists to high bumup, there will be no loss of benefit. Economic calculations and a cost-benefit analysis are presented to show the number of extra full-power hours of reactor operation that must be obtained in order to outweigh the additional fabrication costs associated with this fuel.