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The transformation of the NRC: 50 years of commissioners
The dust is beginning to settle following the whirlwind of changes at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission over the past year, and 2025 ultimately may be viewed as a transformative year, as well as the year the NRC celebrated its golden anniversary. The 12 months of that milestone year brought more change to the agency in its composition, its mandate, and its relationship to the executive branch than any comparable period in the preceding four decades.
Now at 51 years and counting, the NRC is working with a full commission and issuing new rulemakings to both regulate and support the next round of nuclear deployments. With the turbulence of 2025 still fresh in our minds, Nuclear News decided it was a good time to revisit the professional backgrounds of all 42 NRC commissioners who have served over the agency’s 50-year history to see how the composition of the commission has evolved over time.
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.