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Radiation Protection & Shielding
The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
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2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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Securing the advanced reactor fleet
Physical protection accounts for a significant portion of a nuclear power plant’s operational costs. As the U.S. moves toward smaller and safer advanced reactors, similar protection strategies could prove cost prohibitive. For tomorrow’s small modular reactors and microreactors, security costs must remain appropriate to the size of the reactor for economical operation.
Timothy S. Roth, A. Biancheria
Nuclear Technology | Volume 77 | Number 1 | April 1987 | Pages 50-59
Technical Paper | Material | doi.org/10.13182/NT87-A33951
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A computer graphics technique was used to measure cracks and other features of mixed-oxide fuel ceramographs to provide information useful for the modeling of fuel cracking and fragment movement. These measurements provided qualitative and quantitative information in several areas: crack formation and fuel-fragment movement, fuel-cladding gap size, crack size, crack orientation, radial distribution of crack porosity, and change in fuel volume (referred to as total fuel swelling) as a function of oxygen-to-metal ratio (O/M) and burnup. Examination of the ceramographs indicated that a crack starts on a free surface and propogates until it reaches another free surface. Thus, the first crack extends from one side of the fuel to the other, and succeeding cracks terminate on existing cracks or on the fuel surface. While crack formation was found to be independent of O/M, differences in crack healing at moderate power (19 kW/m) and high burnup (12 at.%) lead to a predominance of radial cracks for high O/M (∼1.96) fuel and both radial and circumferential cracks for low O/M (∼1.92) fuel. The different effects of circumferential and radial cracks on fuel behavior produce smaller postirradiation fuel-cladding gaps and larger cracks in the lower O/M fuel pins. Fuel swelling at intermediate burnup (∼8 at. %) is independent of O/M, but at high burnup (∼12 at. Vo) lower O/M fuel swells more. This swelling behavior may be related to a similar O/M dependence of retained fission gas.