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September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Remembering ANS member Gil Brown
Brown
The nuclear community is mourning the loss of Gilbert Brown, who passed away on July 11 at the age of 77 following a battle with cancer.
Brown, an American Nuclear Society Fellow and an ANS member for nearly 50 years, joined the faculty at Lowell Technological Institute—now the University of Massachusetts–Lowell—in 1973 and remained there for the rest of his career. He eventually became director of the UMass Lowell nuclear engineering program. After his retirement, he remained an emeritus professor at the university.
Sukesh Aghara, chair of the Nuclear Engineering Department Heads Organization, noted in an email to NEDHO members and others that “Gil was a relentless advocate for nuclear energy and a deeply respected member of our professional community. He was also a kind and generous friend—and one of the reasons I ended up at UMass Lowell. He served the university with great dedication. . . . Within NEDHO, Gil was a steady presence and served for many years as our treasurer. His contributions to nuclear engineering education and to this community will be dearly missed.”
Jeffrey O. Brower, Michael V. Glazoff, Thomas J. Eiden, Aleksey V. Rezvoi
Nuclear Technology | Volume 201 | Number 3 | March 2018 | Pages 267-285
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2017.1341278
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Two types of flow-assisted corrosion were observed at advanced test reactor (ATR) during PALM Cycle 153B-1 (April 2013): pitting corrosion and flow-assisted erosion corrosion. In this paper, a description of the corrosion is provided along with the results of thermodynamic, kinetic, neutronic, and thermohydraulic modeling. Together, these results provide a plausible explanation and means of corrosion remediation in the future. Cycle 153B-1 was a typical operating cycle for the ATR and did not result in any unusual plant transients. However, when the fuel elements were removed from the core and inspected, several thousand flow-assisted corrosion pits and “horseshoeing” defects (erosion corrosion) were readily observed on the surface of the several YA-type fuel elements. A thermohydraulic model of coolant in channel 20 (near a YA fuel element and the Be neutron reflector) was generated and helped to establish that the horizontal saw cuts in the Be neutron reflector had a significant effect on the temperature of the coolant. Horizontal cuts in the beryllium reflector block were created to arrest the propagation of large vertical crack(s) in Be. The flow was turbulent, rather than varying linearly with gradual heating of the coolant as it passed through the channel. The temperature rise was represented by a series of “humps,” which occurred at each horizontal saw cut in the beryllium reflector block. Each of the 13 saw cuts had a chamfered edge which resulted in the coolant flow being redirected as a jet across the coolant channel into the surface of the EE (i.e., a plate without nuclear fuel) plate. This explained the temperature rise and the observed scalloping and pitting degradation on the YA-M fuel elements. In the case of scalloping (horseshoeing), a surprising similarity of this defect to those appearing on aluminum plates rolled in overlubrication conditions was established. The neutronics data for modeling were provided using advanced irradiation simulations (MCNP, HELIOS). The following corrective measures were proposed based upon the results of JMatPro v.8.2 modeling (TTT and CCT diagrams): change the fabrication process by adding blister anneal before program anneal immediately after cold rolling of AA6061 plate. This step allows achieving complete recrystallization and eliminates strengthening due to metastable precipitates.
