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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Latest News
No impact from Savannah River radioactive wasps
The news is abuzz with recent news stories about four radioactive wasp nests found at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The site has been undergoing cleanup operations since the 1990s related to the production of plutonium and tritium for defense purposes during the Cold War. Cleanup activities are expected to continue into the 2060s.
Peter H. Royl, James E. Cahalan, Günter Friedel, Günter Kussmaul, Jean Moreau, Maurice Perks, Roald A. Wigeland
Nuclear Technology | Volume 97 | Number 2 | February 1992 | Pages 198-211
Technical Paper | Nuclear Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT92-A34616
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In a cooperative effort among European and U.S. analysts, an assessment of the comparative safety performance of metal and oxide fuels during accidents in a 3500-MW(thermal), pool-type, liquid-metal-cooled reactor (LMR) is performed. The study focuses on three accident initiators with failure to scram: the unprotected loss-of-flow (ULOF), the unprotected transient overpower, and the unprotected loss-of-heat-sink (ULOHS). Core designs with a similar power output that have been previously analyzed in Europe under ULOF accident conditions are also included in this comparison. Emphasis is placed on identification of design features that provide passive, self-limiting responses to postulated accident conditions and quantification of relative safety margins. The analyses show that in ULOF and ULOHS sequences, metal-fueled LMRs with pool-type primary systems provide larger temperature margins to coolant boiling than do oxide-fueled reactors of the same design.