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Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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RIC session focuses on interagency collaboration
Attendees at last week’s 2026 Regulatory Information Conference, hosted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, saw extensive discussion of new reactor technologies, uprates, fusion, multiunit deployments, supply chain, and much more.
With the industry in a state of rapid evolution, there was much to discuss. Connected to all these topics was one central theme: the ongoing changes at the NRC. With massively shortened timelines, the ADVANCE Act and Executive Order 14300, and new interagency collaboration and authorization pathways in mind, speakers spent much of the RIC exploring what the road ahead looks like for the NRC.
Rei Kimura, Kazuhito Asano
Nuclear Technology | Volume 210 | Number 8 | August 2024 | Pages 1496-1502
Note | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2023.2299899
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A novel microreactor, called MoveluXTM, was previously proposed that utilizes heat pipes as the primary heat transfer device and calcium hydride as the moderator. In this core design, the moderator temperature is the critical core operation limit because at high temperatures above 800°C, the hydrogen dissociates from the calcium hydride. The core temperature distribution, therefore, was previously evaluated. However, this evaluation did not consider gamma heating in the core and assumed that power was produced only in the fuel region. By contrast, the moderator region has a power density under realistic conditions due to gamma heating. Thus, the present work considers gamma heating in the core power distribution calculation and evaluates the impact on the moderator temperature. The power density of gamma heating was 1/10th that of the fuel region and around 1/100th that of the core thermal power. This increased the temperature of the moderator by 10 K from the case without considering gamma heating. In addition, this temperature distribution difference did not have an impact on the core criticality. In conclusion, considering the gamma heating, concerns regarding the core design are not suggested.