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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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.
William J. Kovacs, Karl Bongartz, Dan T. Goodin
Nuclear Technology | Volume 68 | Number 3 | March 1985 | Pages 344-354
Technical Paper | Nuclear Fuel | doi.org/10.13182/NT85-A33580
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A Triso-coated particle stress model was used to describe pressure vessel failure in high-temperature gas-cooled reactor fuel particles. Two separate failure modes were treated, namely, category I, which applies to standard particles characterized by a load-bearing silicon carbide (SiC) layer and instantaneous pyrolytic carbon (PyC) and SiC failure, and category II, which applies to particles with a defective SiC layer incapable of supporting a tensile load. Closed-form solutions, which describe PyC and SiC coating layer stresses as a function of irradiation conditions and particle geometry, were adapted to Monte Carlo calculational routines. The PyC and SiC stresses were calculated for a large number (104 to 106) of particles, and particle failure was predicted to occur when the calculated coating layer tensile stresses exceeded either the SiC (category I failure) or PyC (category II failure) fracture lengths. Model predictions are generally consistent with irradiation test results and serve as a useful guide for particle design optimization studies and in-core fuel performance evaluations.