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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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Powering the future: How the DOE is fueling nuclear fuel cycle research and development
As global interest in nuclear energy surges, the United States must remain at the forefront of research and development to ensure national energy security, advance nuclear technologies, and promote international cooperation on safety and nonproliferation. A crucial step in achieving this is analyzing how funding and resources are allocated to better understand how to direct future research and development. The Department of Energy has spearheaded this effort by funding hundreds of research projects across the country through the Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP). This initiative has empowered dozens of universities to collaborate toward a nuclear-friendly future.
Yoshiro Nishioka, Satoru Kuboya, Yuya Takahashi, Hideki Horie, Mika Tahara (Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions Corp), Tadashi Fujii (Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy, Ltd), Takafumi Tsuji (Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc.)
Proceedings | 2018 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2018) | Charlotte, NC, April 8-11, 2018 | Pages 223-228
The passive debris cooling system provides a means to stably hold and cool the molten core (debris) dropped from the reactor vessel by the heat resistant material laid on the bottom of the containment vessel. As a heat resistant material, high melting point and highly corrosion-resistant oxide is laid on the pedestal and water is injected afterwards to suppress MCCI by the molten core. In the past research, although knowledge about molten core and concrete has been acquired, knowledge about interaction between molten core and heat resistant material is insufficient. Therefore, element tests on heat resistant materials were conducted, various heat resistant materials were screened, and molten core - heat resistant material interaction model was constructed using the obtained findings. Using the constructed model, we evaluated the erosion / heat transfer behavior of the heat resistant material assuming the bottom of the BWR / Mark - II type containment vessel at the time of severe accident and confirmed the MCCI suppression effect by the passive debris cooling system.