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2026 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
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Groundwater data pave the way for Environmental Management Disposal Facility at Oak Ridge
Results of a two-year study of groundwater levels at the site of the planned Environmental Management Disposal Facility (EMDF) in Oak Ridge, Tenn., have been released, revealing that the levels fell at a slower-than-expected rate. The collection of data on groundwater levels during two wet seasons, conducted by the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management and the contractor United Cleanup Oak Ridge, formed the core of a groundwater field demonstration study which will help inform the final design of the EMDF landfill.
Bethany Burkhardt, Steven Krahn, Timothy Ault, Brandon Chisholm, Steven Lemasters, Kevin Adams (Vanderbilt Univ), Andrew Sowder (EPRI)
Proceedings | 16th International High-Level Radioactive Waste Management Conference (IHLRWM 2017) | Charlotte, NC, April 9-13, 2017 | Pages 224-230
Many software-enabled nuclear fuel cycle simulation tools (FCSTs) have been developed to support a range of end-users and to answer a range of questions. However, documentation of software-enabled FCST functionalities and capabilities has been limited, and most FCSTs have been designed to address a narrow set of questions such as reactor performance or nuclear fuel characteristics. Given the limited user community and resources, these tools are generally developed without the benefit of best practices from the commercial software engineering field. This paper provides a snapshot of the current population of FCSTs. In all, 16 software-enabled FCSTs were reviewed based on survey input from software developer and end-user communities. The survey instrument was organized by five major software architectural categories: functionality, usability, reliability, performance, and supportability. Because of the limited end-user population and noncommercial nature of software development efforts, the publicly shared results have been anonymized and limited primarily to population-level findings and trends.