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2026 Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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Modernizing I&C for operations and maintenance, one phase at a time
The two reactors at Dominion Energy’s Surry plant are among the oldest in the U.S. nuclear fleet. Yet when the plant celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2023, staff could raise a toast to the future. Surry was one of the first plants to file a subsequent license renewal (SLR) application, and in May 2021, it became official: the plant was licensed to operate for a full 80 years, extending its reactors’ lifespans into 2052 and 2053.
Ching-Sheng Lin, Tongkyu Park, Won Sik Yang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 197 | Number 1 | January 2017 | Pages 29-46
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NT16-90
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper presents the core design studies of a sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) and a sodium-cooled accelerator-driven system (ADS) for a two-stage fast-spectrum fuel cycle to enhance uranium resource utilization and reduce nuclear waste generation. The first-stage SFR starts with low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel and operates with the recovered uranium and plutonium from the discharged fuels and natural uranium at equilibrium. The recovered minor actinides (MAs) are sent to the second-stage ADS, where they are burned in an inert matrix fuel form. Reference core designs were developed for a 1000-MW(thermal) LEU-fueled breakeven fast reactor (LEUBFR) and an 840-MW(thermal) MA-fueled ADS blanket. The SFR starts with uranium fuel with a 235U enrichment of 13.6% and reaches a fuel-breakeven core after 14 cycles with an 18-month cycle length. At the equilibrium state, one ADS supports 37 fast reactors. Using the performance parameters of SFR and ADS, the proposed two-stage fuel cycle was evaluated. The results of the equilibrium cycle analysis showed that the two-stage fuel cycle option could achieve a high reduction in waste generation because of the continuous recycling of the plutonium and MAs. In addition, the mass flow data showed that this two-stage fuel cycle option increases the efficiency of natural uranium utilization and reduces the nuclear waste generation compared to the conventional two-stage fuel cycle options based on thermal and fast-spectrum systems.
