Report of investigation into allegations of retaliation for raising safety and quality of work issues regarding Argonne National Laboratory`s Integral Fast Reactor project

1991 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Fast Reactor ◽  
National Laboratory ◽  
Argonne National Laboratory ◽  
Quality Of Work

On the structure of aragonite

2005 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. N. Caspi ◽  
B. Pokroy ◽  
P. L. Lee ◽  
J. P. Quintana ◽  
E. Zolotoyabko
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
National Laboratory ◽  
Argonne National Laboratory ◽  
Orthorhombic Symmetry ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Impurity Atoms ◽  
Synchrotron Powder Diffraction ◽  
Refinement Procedure ◽  
Photon Source

High-resolution synchrotron powder diffraction measurements were carried out at the 32-ID beamline of the Advanced Photon Source of Argonne National Laboratory in order to clarify the structure of geological aragonite, a widely abundant polymorph of CaCO3. The investigated crystals were practically free of impurity atoms, as measured by wavelength-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy in scanning electron microscopy. A superior quality of diffraction data was achieved by using the 11-channel 111 Si multi-analyzer of the diffracted beam. Applying the Rietveld refinement procedure to the high-resolution diffraction spectra, we were able to extract the aragonite lattice parameters with an accuracy of about 20 p.p.m. The data obtained unambiguously confirm that pure aragonite crystals have orthorhombic symmetry.

Long-Haul Endurance

2002 ◽  
Vol 124 (08) ◽  
pp. 50-51
Author(s):  
John DeGaspari
Keyword(s):  
National Laboratory ◽  
Argonne National Laboratory ◽  
Ceramic Materials ◽  
Heavy Duty ◽  
Laser Technique ◽  
Early Failure ◽  
Heavy Duty Truck ◽  
Ceramic Components ◽  
Better Than

This article reviews that lasers are being investigated as a way to uncover tiny imperfections in crucial ceramic components of diesel engines. Heavy-duty truck engines are designed to operate for a million miles or more. In their search for components that resist corrosion and wear, manufacturers have developed engine parts from ceramics, which have found their way into a number of commercial engine applications over the last 10 years. Under some conditions, the materials hold up better than steel, but they are not immune to weaknesses of their own. The machining of ceramic parts, for example, can leave them with flaws that lead to early failure and defeat their purpose. The laser technique being developed at Argonne National Laboratory is intended to inspect the quality of ceramic parts after they are machined. So far, the laser technique has been developed to look for imperfections in silicon nitride, silicon carbide, and zirconia, among other ceramic materials.

Implementation of Liquid Metal Properties in RELAP5 MOD3.2 for Safety Analysis of Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactors

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jian Song ◽  
Limin Liu ◽  
Simiao Tang ◽  
Yingwei Wu ◽  
Wenxi Tian ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Liquid Metal ◽  
Fast Reactor ◽  
Natural Circulation ◽  
National Laboratory ◽  
Argonne National Laboratory ◽  
Working Fluid ◽  
Primary System ◽  
Steady State Condition ◽  
Design Values

Due to great deal of operation experience and technology accumulation, sodium cooled fast reactor (SFR) is the most promising among the six Generation IV reactors, which has advantages of breeding nuclear fuel, transmuting long-lived actinides and good safety characteristics. Thermal-hydraulic computer codes will have to be developed, verified, and validated to support the conceptual and final designs of new SFRs. However, work on developing thermal hydraulic analysis code for SFR is very limited in China, while the common software RELAP5 MOD3 is unable to analyze liquid metal systems. So the modified RELAP5 MOD3.2 is being considered as the thermal-hydraulic system code to support the development of the SFRs. The thermodynamic and transport properties of sodium liquid and vapor have been implemented into the RELAP5 MOD3.2 code, as well as the specific heat transfer correlations for liquid metal. The sodium liquid properties use polynomial equations based on data obtained from Argonne National Laboratory, and the vapor is assumed to be perfect gas. The property equations are acceptably accurate for analysis of SFR, especially for single-phase liquid. New files are added to the fluids directory to generate property tables for new working fluid, which are similar to the table interpolation subroutines for light and heavy water in the original file directory. The method of code modifications are universal for other working fluids and will not affect the code original performance. Some basic verification work for the modified code are carried out. The steam generator of CEFR is analyzed to verify the modified code. The calculated results show that all the water will boil off in the evaporator and the calculated results are in good agreement with the design values. By using modified RELAP5 to model the primary loop of EBR-II fast reactor, the SHRT-17 PLOF test was analyzed. The results show that the natural circulation can be established in the EBR-II primary system after main pumps off to remove the core decay residual heat effectively, and the peak temperature under the safety limits. Moreover, the results computed in this work compared well with the test experimental data for the steady state condition. During the transients, the changing trends of temperature and pressure are similar to experimental data. The discrepancies between calculation and experiment are considered acceptably which need to be improved in the future work. Our work could demonstrate the capability and reliability of the modified RELAP5 for the analysis of SFRs further.

Comparative Study on Neutronics Characteristics of a 1500 MWe Metal Fuel Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazuya Ohgama ◽  
Gerardo Aliberti ◽  
Nicolas E. Stauff ◽  
Shigeo Ohki ◽  
Taek K. Kim
Keyword(s):  
Fast Reactor ◽  
National Laboratory ◽  
Argonne National Laboratory ◽  
Nuclear Data ◽  
Cooperative Effort ◽  
Energy Agency ◽  
Control Rod ◽  
Benchmark Study ◽  
Metal Fuel ◽  
And Control

Under the cooperative effort of the Civil Nuclear Energy R&D Working Group within the framework of the U.S.-Japan bilateral, Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) have been performing benchmark study using Japan Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (JSFR) design with metal fuel. In this benchmark study, core characteristic parameters at the beginning of cycle were evaluated by the best estimate deterministic and stochastic methodologies of ANL and JAEA. The results obtained by both institutions are agreed well with less than 200 pcm of discrepancy on the neutron multiplication factor, and less than 3% of discrepancy on the sodium void reactivity, Doppler reactivity, and control rod worth. The results by the stochastic and deterministic were compared in each party to investigate impacts of the deterministic approximation and to understand potential variations in the results due to different calculation methodologies employed. Impacts of the nuclear data libraries were also investigated using a sensitivity analysis methodology.

Thermal-Hydraulic Analysis of the EBR-II SHRT-45R Unprotected Loss of Flow Experiment With Modified RELAP5

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tang Simiao ◽  
Song Jian ◽  
Zhang Dalin ◽  
Wang Chenglong ◽  
Qiu Suizheng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fast Reactor ◽  
Plant Protection ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
National Laboratory ◽  
Argonne National Laboratory ◽  
Heat Removal ◽  
Safety Performance ◽  
Metallic Fuel ◽  
Fast Reactors ◽  
Negative Reactivity

Sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) is one of most promising Generation IV reactor technology and has a rapid development in recent years. Experimental Breeder Reactor II (EBR-II) designed by Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) is a typical sodium-cooled fast reactor with a sodium-bonded metallic fuel core, featured with reactor negative reactivity feedback. In order to verify and validate (V&V) the inherent safety performance of sodium-cooled fast reactor, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) established the coordinated research project (CRP) in which Xi’an Jiaotong University has participated. The “Benchmark Analysis of EBR-II shutdown heat removal tests” was conducted by ANL. SHRT-45R, namely Unprotected Loss of Flow (ULOF), is one of the reactor tests among many transients. Argonne National Laboratory has prepared a detailed benchmark specification and has provided the enough benchmark data for SHRT-45R. At the beginning of SHRT-45R both primary main pumps and the intermediate loop pump were synchronously tripped to simulate the unprotected loss of flow accident. During the test, the plant protection system (PPS) was disabled to initiate a control rod scram. The SHRT-45R test demonstrated that EBR-II could keep in safe during the potentially adverse consequences of unprotected accidents. This paper introduces the models for predicting SHRT-45R in detail and presents the results of the analysis of the Unprotected Loss of Flow (ULOF) test SHRT-45R performed in the EBR-II reactor. The thermal-hydraulic calculations are performed with Modified RELAP5 in which the thermodynamic and transport properties of liquid and vapor state sodium have been supplemented, as well as the specific heat transfer correlations. The numerical results show that the loss of forced coolant flow causes the coolant temperatures in the instrumented subassemblies XX09 and XX10 to increase to a peak point but keep at an acceptable level about 930K and 850K at the early state of accidents, and then the reactor can shut down by itself due to the negative reactivity feedback including Doppler reactivity feedback and density reactivity feedback after 70s. The variation of the key thermal-hydraulic parameters including the coolant temperatures and fuel cladding temperature in the instrumented subassembly has a good agreement with the experimental data in general. The results could not only verify and validate the inhere safety performance of sodium-cooled fast reactors during potentially unprotected accidents but also demonstrate the analysis capability of the modified RELAP5 for sodium-cooled fast reactors.

Electron and ion irradiation-induced dissolution of mechanical twins in the intermetalic U3Si: An in situ HVEM study

1989 ◽  
Vol 47 ◽  
pp. 652-653
Author(s):  
Charles W. Allen ◽  
Robert C. Birtcher
Keyword(s):  
Elevated Temperatures ◽  
Ion Irradiation ◽  
Ion Beam ◽  
National Laboratory ◽  
Argonne National Laboratory ◽  
Heavy Ion ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Mechanical Twinning ◽  
In Situ Experiments

The uranium silicides, including U3Si, are under study as candidate low enrichment nuclear fuels. Ion beam simulations of the in-reactor behavior of such materials are performed because a similar damage structure can be produced in hours by energetic heavy ions which requires years in actual reactor tests. This contribution treats one aspect of the microstructural behavior of U3Si under high energy electron irradiation and low dose energetic heavy ion irradiation and is based on in situ experiments, performed at the HVEM-Tandem User Facility at Argonne National Laboratory. This Facility interfaces a 2 MV Tandem ion accelerator and a 0.6 MV ion implanter to a 1.2 MeV AEI high voltage electron microscope, which allows a wide variety of in situ ion beam experiments to be performed with simultaneous irradiation and electron microscopy or diffraction.At elevated temperatures, U3Si exhibits the ordered AuCu3 structure. On cooling below 1058 K, the intermetallic transforms, evidently martensitically, to a body-centered tetragonal structure (alternatively, the structure may be described as face-centered tetragonal, which would be fcc except for a 1 pet tetragonal distortion). Mechanical twinning accompanies the transformation; however, diferences between electron diffraction patterns from twinned and non-twinned martensite plates could not be distinguished.

Environmental cell studies of deformation and fracture

1990 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 516-517
Author(s):  
H. K. Birnbaum ◽  
I. M. Robertson
Keyword(s):  
National Laboratory ◽  
Argonne National Laboratory ◽  
Damage Threshold ◽  
Chromatic Aberration ◽  
Good Choice ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Deformation And Fracture ◽  
Environmental Cell ◽  
Gas Molecules ◽  
The University

Studies of the effects of hydrogen environments on the deformation and fracture of fcc, bcc and hep metals and alloys have been carried out in a TEM environmental cell. The initial experiments were performed in the environmental cell of the HVEM facility at Argonne National Laboratory. More recently, a dedicated environmental cell facility has been constructed at the University of Illinois using a JEOL 4000EX and has been used for these studies. In the present paper we will describe the general design features of the JEOL environmental cell and some of the observations we have made on hydrogen effects on deformation and fracture.The JEOL environmental cell is designed to operate at 400 keV and below; in part because of the available accelerating voltage of the microscope and in part because the damage threshold of most materials is below 400 keV. The gas pressure at which chromatic aberration due to electron scattering from the gas molecules becomes excessive does not increase rapidly with with accelerating voltage making 400 keV a good choice from that point of view as well. A series of apertures were placed above and below the cell to control the pressures in various parts of the column.

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