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MIT professor develops method to verify compliance with Outer Space Treaty
Danagoulian
Areg Danagoulian of the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is proposing a mechanism for verifying that Earth-orbiting satellites are in compliance with the Outer Space Treaty, which prohibits the placement of nuclear weapons in space. Danagoulian’s “concept and feasibility study,” titled “Verification of the Outer Space Treaty with cosmic protons,” was published recently in the journal Nature.
Wei Tang, Jian Chen, Brian Gibson, Roger Miller, Scarlett Clark, Mark Vance, Zhili Feng, Keith Leonard (ORNL), Jonathan Tatman, Benjamin Sutton, Gregory Frederick (EPRI)
Proceedings | 2018 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2018) | Charlotte, NC, April 8-11, 2018 | Pages 67-75
Welding is widely used for repair, maintenance, and upgrade of nuclear reactor components. As a critical technology for supporting the extension of nuclear power plant service lifetimes beyond 60 years, there has been an industry need in further developing welding technology for highly irradiated materials. During welding of irradiated materials, Helium, which is a transmutation byproduct from Boron and Nickel contained in the structural alloys, can coalesce into bubbles along grain boundaries in the material under driving forces of high temperature and thermal tensile stress. This leads to embrittlement and potential intergranular cracking in the Heat Affected Zone (HAZ) of the weld. In this paper, irradiated 304 stainless steel coupons containing 5, 10 and 20 ppm Boron prior to radiation were successfully welded by advanced laser beam welding (LBW) and friction stir welding (FSW). Facilities and welding machine design, welding processes development, cold material welded joints evaluation, process safety control and documentation, and irradiated material welding are discussed. Both laser and friction stir welded coupons of the irradiated material exhibited high welding quality and surface finish. No Helium induced welding defects were observed on the weld surfaces or adjacent base metals.