Sentences with phrase «of nuclear fuel rods»

An artist's rendering of nuclear fuel rods in front of a colorful computational valley predicted for alloying compositions.

Not exact matches

The Federal Nuclear Waste Policy Act has mandated that deep - mine disposal of high - level radioactive effluent and spent fuel rods from nuclear reactors commence by 1998, but states with proposed geological sites are screaminNuclear Waste Policy Act has mandated that deep - mine disposal of high - level radioactive effluent and spent fuel rods from nuclear reactors commence by 1998, but states with proposed geological sites are screaminnuclear reactors commence by 1998, but states with proposed geological sites are screaming foul.

It is commonly recognized that the radioactivity and extreme toxicity of nuclear reactor postfission effluent and spent fuel rods constitute a hazard to human health and safety.

Officials at the FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant near Oswego are investigating why fuel rods in the reactor's core are leaking radiation and while not considered an emergency, it could potentially spread contaminated water to other parts of the plant.

Any future discussion of nuclear power will have to take a hard look at regulation and safety, in particular the practice of storing spent nuclear fuel rods on - site

The back end of the nuclear fuel cycle, mostly spent fuel rods, often contains fission products that emit beta and gamma radiation, and may contain actinides that emit alpha particles, such as uranium - 234, neptunium - 237, plutonium - 238 and americium - 241, and even sometimes some neutron emitters such as Cf.

The pipes in and out of the reactor sit above the nuclear fuel rods themselves, ensuring that any leaks do not result in uncovered fuel.

Leaks, burst cooling pipes, faulty controls, misplaced fuel rods and engineers» warnings about design flaws have done little to slow down approvals for continued operation of the nation's aging nuclear plants

The pools — water - filled basins that store and cool used radioactive fuel rods — are so densely packed with nuclear waste that a fire could release enough radioactive material to contaminate an area twice the size of New Jersey.

There is radioactive rubble to contain or dispose of, undamaged fuel rods to be safely removed (and discarded), and an unknown amount of melted nuclear fuel to contain.

In 2010, the Obama administration abandoned a 2 - decade effort to bury much of the high level waste — spent fuel rods from commercial reactors and radioactive material from nuclear bomb manufacturing — inside Yucca Mountain in the Nevada desert (although Congress has ordered parts of that process to keep moving).

Because of the harsh environment fuel rods are exposed to — heat, steam, and neutrons that emanate from nuclear reactions — extensive further testing will be needed on any new cladding for use in commercial reactors, Kazimi says.

That hydrogen buildup was the result of hot steam coming into contact with overheated nuclear fuel rods covered by a cladding of zirconium alloy, or «zircaloy» — the material used as fuel - rod cladding in all water - cooled nuclear reactors, which constitute more than 90 percent of the world's power reactors.

And the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2006 suggested the practice of overcrowding pools for the storage of spent nuclear fuel rods — that has caused fires and explosions at Fukushima Daiichi, which stores far less used fuel than typical U.S. plants — could prove dangerous.

Nuclear fuel rods are made of hundreds of small pellets of enriched uranium placed end - to - end inside hollow tubes of zircaloy that are about a half - inch across.

For the first time in decades a new uranium rod fabrication plant is operating in New Mexico and it may soon be joined by as many as three others in the U.S.. That's because 2013 will see the expiration of an agreement with Russia that allows the U.S. to blend down the highly enriched uranium from decommissioned Russian nuclear warheads into the lower level enriched fuel used in U.S. nuclear reactors — a program known as «Megatons to Megawatts» that currently provides as much as 50 percent of U.S. nuclear fuel.

Finally, the global expansion of nuclear power plants should be enabled by some form of leasing program for the uranium fuel rods — one up for renewal every decade or so.

And human error led the operators of Vermont Yankee to misplace segments from two spent fuel rods, a chronic problem with nuclear material.

The most logical solution, experts say, would be to send the 9700 kilograms of LEU to Russia for conversion into fuel rods for Iran's Russian - built Bushehr nuclear reactor, in operation since 2011.

And we've tried out more designs, more nuclear powered designs in this one company than in all of the history of mankind put together, because we just happen to be out in front on, «Oh, change the fuel rod this way.»

Such boreholes could not house most of the country's waste, like fuel rods from nuclear power plants, but could have potential for smaller, long - lived radioactive materials.

Unlike the current generation of light - water nuclear reactors, PRISM uses metallic fuel, such as an alloy of zirconium, uranium, and plutonium, and PRISM's fuel rods sit in a bath of a liquid metal — sodium — at atmospheric pressure, which ensures that the transfer of heat from the metal fuel to the liquid sodium coolant is extremely efficient.

To ensure that moving spent radioactive fuel is being carried out with the minimum of risks, Sandia National Laboratories recently completed a nuclear «triathlon» of a simulated cargo of spent fuel rods over 14,500 mi to record the stress and jolts that fuel undergoes in transit.

Hours earlier, Gregory Jaczko, the head of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, told Congress that spent fuel rods in Unit 4 of the plant had been exposed, resulting in the emission of «extremely high» levels of radiation.

While we absorb background radiation every day, standing next to a newly removed reactor spent fuel rod for a few seconds will kill you, David Lochbaum, the Union of Concerned Scientists» (UCS) nuclear safety engineer, calculates.

The out - of - control status of the 6 Fukushima nuclear reactors and their stored spent fuel rods is a textbook example of «Don't Know Squared — It's What You Don't Know You Don't Know» that can bring down any system designed by humanity.

With nuclear, upfront costs are high, but the end costs of decommissioning and of hot fuel rod treatment are even higher.

There are several western states — just about all of them — with sufficient open space away from almost anything to store fuel rods for the next couple of thousand years, even if nuclear provided 100 % of US electric supply.

I would not like a nuclear power plant of any size on my property as I wouldn't know what to do with the exhausted fuel rods.)

LFTRs consume 100 % of the thorium fed to them and can be started with spent fuel rods or old nuclear warheads.

Perhaps they aren't capable of destroying nuclear power stations today, or weaponizing spent fuel rods in order to blow up cities, but how long do you expect that to remain the case?

Once the relatively clean - running nuclear plant is online, it produces radioactive waste in the form of spent fuel rods.

«Whenever the government loses a lawsuit, money just magically comes out of the Judgement Fund,» Rod McCullum, senior director of the Nuclear Energy Institute's (NEI's) Used Fuel and Decommissioning arm, told POWER in February.

Fuel rods became exposed and began to melt, while generating large amounts of hydrogen from the rapid oxidation of zirconium contained in the cladding surrounding the nuclear fFuel rods became exposed and began to melt, while generating large amounts of hydrogen from the rapid oxidation of zirconium contained in the cladding surrounding the nuclear fuelfuel.

Trains carry a wide variety of toxic materials, from spent nuclear fuel rods to highly caustic chemicals.