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The Mission of the Robotics and Remote Systems Division is to promote the development and application of immersive simulation, robotics, and remote systems for hazardous environments for the purpose of reducing hazardous exposure to individuals, reducing environmental hazards and reducing the cost of performing work.
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2020 ANS Virtual Winter Meeting
November 16–19, 2020
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Newest Russian icebreaker ready to hit the ice
The Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker Arktika. Photo: Rosatom
The Arktika, Russia’s latest nuclear-powered icebreaker, sailed from the Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg last week, bound for the Murmansk seaport. The voyage is scheduled to take approximately two weeks, during which time the vessel will be tested “in ice conditions,” according to Rosatom, Russia’s state-owned atomic energy corporation.
Ching-Sheng Lin, Tongkyu Park, Won Sik Yang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 197 | Number 1 | January 2017 | Pages 29-46
Technical Paper | dx.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.
