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Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
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Utility Working Conference Virtual Summit (UWC)
August 11, 2020
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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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Penfield and Enos: Outage planning in the COVID-19 era
Penfield
Enos
Energy Harbor’s Beaver Valley plant, located about 34 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, Pa., was one of many nuclear sites preparing for a scheduled outage as the coronavirus pandemic intensified in March. The baseline objective of any planned outage—to complete refueling on time and get back to producing power—was complicated by the need to prevent the transmission of COVID-19.
While over 200 of the plant’s 850 staff members worked from home to support the outage, about 800 contractors were brought in for jobs that could only be done on-site. Nuclear News Staff Writer Susan Gallier talked with Beaver Valley Site Vice President Rod Penfield and General Plant Manager Matt Enos about the planning and communication required.
Beaver Valley can look forward to several more outages in the future, now that plans to shut down the two Westinghouse pressurized water reactors, each rated at about 960 MWe, were reversed in March. “The deactivation announcement happened in the middle of all our planning,” Enos said. “It’s a shame we haven’t had a chance to get together as a large group and celebrate that yet.”
While the focus remains on safe pandemic operations, the site now has two causes for celebration: an outage success and a long future ahead.
M. Mirandou, S. Aricó, R. Sanabria, S. Balart, D. Podestá, J. Fabro
Nuclear Technology | Volume 199 | Number 1 | July 2017 | Pages 96-102
Technical Paper | dx.doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2017.1323534
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Because of their good behavior under irradiation, fuel elements based on U3Si2 particles dispersed in an Al matrix have been used to convert to low-enriched uranium in a large number of research reactors. This behavior is extended to any compound grown by interdiffusion between silicide and Al during the fabrication process.
In this work, two plates fabricated with U3Si2 particles dispersed in an Al matrix were analyzed by optical and scanning electron microscopies, wave length dispersive microanalysis, and X-ray diffraction after the fabrication process. The results show that U(Al,Si)3 together with another phase with the same crystalline structure as U3Si2 but modified cell volume was formed.
A detailed analysis of fuel elements based on U3Si2 is considered very useful to be applied when going into greater depth in the frame of a U(Mo) qualification program.
