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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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DOE issues new NEPA rule and procedures—and accelerates DOME reactor testing
Meeting a deadline set in President Trump’s May 23 executive order “Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing at the Department of Energy,” the DOE on June 30 updated information on its National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) rulemaking and implementation procedures and published on its website an interim final rule that rescinds existing regulations alongside new implementing procedures.
Steven T. Polkinghorne, Gregg L. Sharp, Richard T. McCracken
Nuclear Technology | Volume 145 | Number 1 | January 2004 | Pages 44-56
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT04-A3459
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) is a 250-MW irradiation facility used to test reactor fuels and other materials, and also to produce radioisotopes. The ATR core is divided into five regions, or lobes, that normally operate at different power levels. To support future irradiation programs, it is desired that the maximum lobe power be increased 10% (from 60 to 66 MW). A modification to ATR's emergency core cooling system is proposed to ensure that adequate safety margins would be maintained during a loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA). The modification being considered is the addition of an accumulator injection system. The RELAP5 thermal-hydraulic code and the SINDA thermal analyzer were used to simulate the two most challenging design-basis LOCAs identified in the ATR Safety Analysis Report. Calculations were performed both with and without accumulator injection. The results indicate that a 10% increase in maximum lobe power is achievable. Minimum thermal margins increased more than 40% when accumulator injection was simulated.