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Isotopes & Radiation
Members are devoted to applying nuclear science and engineering technologies involving isotopes, radiation applications, and associated equipment in scientific research, development, and industrial processes. Their interests lie primarily in education, industrial uses, biology, medicine, and health physics. Division committees include Analytical Applications of Isotopes and Radiation, Biology and Medicine, Radiation Applications, Radiation Sources and Detection, and Thermal Power Sources.
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International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
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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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Didier Costes
Nuclear Technology | Volume 67 | Number 1 | October 1984 | Pages 169-177
Technical Note | Fission Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT84-A33539
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Sodium-cooled reactor vessels must not resist high pressures, and their walls are relatively thin. These vessels are usually suspended by their lateral wall to the cold roof slab. The upper part of this wall is subjected to periodic thermal stresses and to a permanent tension, corresponding to the weight of the sodium and of the components inside the vessel. In order to avoid a progressive deformation, the temperature of the vessel wall is limited to ∼400°C. This necessitates setting up relatively expensive baffles to isolate the wall from the hot sodium flowing out of the core. In order to relieve the wall from weight-related stresses, vessels resting on the installation basemat by means of sliding or articulated supports were proposed in early projects. A current design proposal consists of resting the vessel bottom on welded, concentric skirts, the chosen temperature of the bottom being relatively low; then a stable thermal gradient appears in sodium layers below the core. The corresponding heat flux lost toward the bottom proves remarkably low; an important simplification of the vessel walls and internal structures, as well as interesting safety features, may be obtained.