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2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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Christmas Light
’Twas the night before Christmas when all through the house
No electrons were flowing through even my mouse.
All devices were plugged by the chimney with care
With the hope that St. Nikola Tesla would share.
Luis Alva, Xinyu Huang (Univ of South Carolina), George Jacobsen (General Atomics)
Proceedings | 2018 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2018) | Charlotte, NC, April 8-11, 2018 | Pages 598-604
The nuclear fuel cladding undergoes severe thermal shock during reflooding of the nuclear core after a loss of coolant accident (LOCA). The purpose of this work is to evaluate the resistance of SiCf-SiCm composite cladding to such thermal shock events. In order to achieve this goal, a nuclear grade SiCf-SiCm composite tube, manufactured by General Atomics (GA), was quenched from an outer surface temperature of 1000 ºC into room temperature (RT) water and hot water. The composite tube was heated by a tungsten rod placed inside the tubular sample to simulate the fuel pellet. The tungsten rod was heated to a centerline temperature of 1400 ºC by an induction coil. To monitor the progressive damage of the SiCf-SiCm composite tube, the acoustic emission (AE) technique is used to acquire the acoustic signals during the test. The samples quenched into RT water showed visible cracks while the sample quenched in hot water did not. Some of the AE signals are related to cracks in the material during quenching. After quenching, the burst strength of the SiCf-SiCm composite tube is measured using a bladder technique. Results show that the SiCf-SiCm composite tube retains more than 88% of its strength after quenching.