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2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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Christmas Light
’Twas the night before Christmas when all through the house
No electrons were flowing through even my mouse.
All devices were plugged by the chimney with care
With the hope that St. Nikola Tesla would share.
Steven A. Wright, Erhard A. Fischer, Peter K. Mast, Gustav Schumacher
Nuclear Technology | Volume 71 | Number 1 | October 1985 | Pages 326-340
Technical Paper | Analyse | doi.org/10.13182/NT85-A33730
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
During an unprotected loss-of-flow accident in a liquid-metal fast breeder reactor, the mode of fuel disruption in sodium-voided channels and the subsequent fuel and clad motion are important issues that determine the further accident sequence. To study these phenomena, a series of in-pile fuel disruption experiments, FD2/4, were performed, and the fuel behavior was recorded by high-speed cinematography. Power transients typical of a heterogeneous (e.g., Clinch River Breeder Reactor) and a homogeneous (e.g., SNR-300, Federal Republic of Germany) core design were employed. In the first case, large-scale liquid swelling was observed, whereas in the second case, disruption by solid-state breakup occurred. Both observations provided direct experimental confirmation of the assumption usually made in the accident analysis, and thus removed still existing modeling uncertainties concerning the disruption behavior.