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NRC proposes rule for decommissioning timelines, groundwater protection
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is proposing a new rule that addresses two different aspects of agency oversight. In “In Situ Recovery Monitoring and Decommissioning Timeliness,” published online on September 1, the NRC proposes in the first part of the new rule to establish risk-informed criteria for protecting drinking water from radiological and nonradiological contamination near uranium in situ recovery (ISR) sites. In the second part of the rule, the NRC proposes to streamline the process for extending decommissioning timelines for all licensees.
Xiaole Wang, Leisheng Chen, Ruixiang Sun, Jaeyoung Lee
Nuclear Technology | Volume 211 | Number 8 | August 2025 | Pages 1662-1673
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2024.2425915
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Inserting small spheres of a fixed size into a pebble bed can enhance heat transfer, lower the surface temperature of fuel elements, and reduce the risk of local hot spots. However, does a multisized pebble bed outperform a double-sized pebble bed in terms of heat transfer? To address this question, numerical simulations were conducted to evaluate the heat transfer characteristics of face-centered-cubic-structured pebble beds with two and three types of small spheres, maintaining a constant solid volume. The results showed that the average heat transfer coefficients of the multisized pebble bed were nearly identical to those of the double-sized bed. This suggests that using two types of small spheres does not necessarily provide better heat transfer performance than using a double-sized bed. Additionally, the number, size, and placement of the spheres influenced the pressure drop. These findings offer insights into the heat transfer behavior of high-temperature reactor cores and provide a useful reference for the design of future pebble bed reactor cores.