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Chernobyl at 40 years: Looking back at Nuclear News
Sunday, April 26, at 1:23 a.m. local time will mark 40 years since the most severe nuclear accident in history: the meltdown of Unit 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union.
In the ensuing four decades, countless books, documentaries, articles, and conference sessions have examined Chernobyl’s history and impact from various angles. There is a similar abundance of outlooks in the archives of Nuclear News, where hundreds of scientists, advocates, critics, and politicians have shared their thoughts on Chernobyl over the years. Today, we will take a look at some highlights from the pages of NN to see how the story of Chernobyl evolved over the decades.
Soon K. Lee, Maolong Liu, Edward D. Blandford, Youho Lee (Univ of New Mexico), Nicholas R. Brown (Penn State), Hang Ban (Univ of Pittsburgh), Colby B. Jensen (INL), Kurt A. Terrani (ORNL)
Proceedings | Advances in Thermal Hydraulics 2018 | Orlando, FL, November 11-15, 2018 | Pages 414-427
This study presents an investigation of critical heat flux (CHF) variation upon the use of candidate Accident Tolerant Fuel (ATF) cladding (FeCrAl alloy) compared to Inconel600, Zircaloy-4 and the 2006 CHF look-up table by conducting the flow boiling experiments under steady-state condition at an atmospheric pressure and at fixed inlet temperatures and a mass flux. To directly compare the CHF change during transient condition relevant to Reactivity Initiated Accident (RIA), experiments were done at the same thermodynamic quality and flow condition following the steady-state condition CHF results. An increased thermal safety margin of FeCrAl alloy compared to other tested alloys were identified as well as a disagreement between the Zircaloy-4 experimental CHF results and the 2006 CHF look-up table, which implies limitation of the current thermal-hydraulic codes for interpreting fuel design safety margin. To gain a better understanding on the implications of wettability on CHF, contact angle measurements were carried out on both fresh and oxide surfaces and the detailed morphology analysis was done by scanning electron microscope, which suggests a negligible impact of the wettability on the flow boiling CHF.