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Going Nuclear: Notes from the officially unofficial book tour
I work in the analytical labs at one of Europe’s oldest and largest nuclear sites: Sellafield, in northwestern England. I spend my days at the fume hood front, pipette in one hand and radiation probe in the other (and dosimeter pinned to my chest, of course). Outside the lab, I have a second job: I moonlight as a writer and public speaker. My new popular science book—Going Nuclear: How the Atom Will Save the World—came out last summer, and it feels like my life has been running at full power ever since.
Peter Yarsky
Nuclear Technology | Volume 207 | Number 5 | May 2021 | Pages 653-664
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2020.1800308
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff often performs confirmatory analysis to support regulatory decision making. In the current work the TRAC/RELAP Advanced Computational Engine (TRACE) code was used to study the transient system response for the NuScale power module to a beyond-design-basis event where the control rods fail to insert. The regulatory purpose of the current work was to confirm the results of analyses provided by the applicant as part of their probabilistic risk assessment analysis that demonstrates that the core is not damaged under certain conditions when the control rods fail to insert. The NRC staff performed calculations using a TRACE model of the NuScale power module that includes both the primary and secondary systems that simulates a loss of alternating-current power and complete failure of the module protection system to insert control rods. The NRC staff analyses demonstrate that under these conditions the reactor stabilizes at a new stable condition with minor power and pressure oscillations where core power is balanced by passive heat removal.