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NCSD provides communication among nuclear criticality safety professionals through the development of standards, the evolution of training methods and materials, the presentation of technical data and procedures, and the creation of specialty publications. In these ways, the division furthers the exchange of technical information on nuclear criticality safety with the ultimate goal of promoting the safe handling of fissionable materials outside reactors.
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High-temperature plumbing and advanced reactors
The use of nuclear fission power and its role in impacting climate change is hotly debated. Fission advocates argue that short-term solutions would involve the rapid deployment of Gen III+ nuclear reactors, like Vogtle-3 and -4, while long-term climate change impact would rely on the creation and implementation of Gen IV reactors, “inherently safe” reactors that use passive laws of physics and chemistry rather than active controls such as valves and pumps to operate safely. While Gen IV reactors vary in many ways, one thing unites nearly all of them: the use of exotic, high-temperature coolants. These fluids, like molten salts and liquid metals, can enable reactor engineers to design much safer nuclear reactors—ultimately because the boiling point of each fluid is extremely high. Fluids that remain liquid over large temperature ranges can provide good heat transfer through many demanding conditions, all with minimal pressurization. Although the most apparent use for these fluids is advanced fission power, they have the potential to be applied to other power generation sources such as fusion, thermal storage, solar, or high-temperature process heat.1–3
Ivars Neretnieks, Helen Winberg-Wang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 205 | Number 6 | June 2019 | Pages 819-829
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2018.1537460
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In geologic repositories for nuclear waste located in crystalline rocks, the waste is surrounded by a bentonite buffer that in practice is not permeable to water flow. The nuclides must escape by molecular diffusion to enter the seeping water in the fractures of the rock. At high water-seepage rates, the nuclides can be carried away rapidly. The seepage rate of the water can be driven by the regional hydraulic gradient as well as by buoyancy-driven flow. The latter is induced by thermal circulation of the water by the heat produced by radionuclide decay. The circulation may also be induced by salt exchange between buffer and water in the fractures. The main aim of this paper is to explore how salt exchange between the backfill and mobile water in fractures, by buoyancy effects, can increase the escape rate of radionuclides from a repository.
A simple analytical model has been developed to describe the mass transfer rate induced by buoyancy. Numerical simulations support the simple solution. A comparison is made with the regional gradient-driven flow model. It is shown that buoyancy-driven flow can noticeably increase the release rate.
