Small modular nuclear reactors are mostly bad policy

People asserting that SMRs are the primary or only answer to energy generation either don’t know what they are talking about, are actively dissembling or are intentionally delaying climate action.

Phase transformation of the corrosion layers on nuclear fuel cladding. Raman spectroscopy study.

The goal of this work was the phase analysis of corrosion layers on zirconium alloys. In the environment of nuclear reactors, zirconium alloys are covered with a protective layer of zirconium oxide, which occurs in two crystalline modifications - monoclinic and tetragonal. The distribution of these phases in the corrosion layer can affect the overall corrosion rate. Raman spectroscopy was used to determine the composition of the corrosion layers. The use of this method is advantageous because the monoclinic and tetragonal phases can be easily distinguished in the spectra of the corrosion layers. In total, samples of two alloys were measured. The samples were pre-exposed at 360 °C in Li+ containing water (70 mg/l Li as LiOH) . Exposure times were between 21 d and 231 d, so the series contained both pre- and post- transition samples. The relative proportion of the tetragonal phase decreases significantly after the transient. It has also been found that the corrosion layers are highly heterogeneous in terms of the distribution of crystalline modifications.

Analysis of Severe Accident in Complex System Reactor Using Moving Particle Semi-Implicit (MPS) Method

The very complex structure of nuclear reactors is one aspect of the cause of severe accidents in nuclear reactors. To prevent serious accidents, analysis is needed on the reactor design before the reactor is built. Reactor accident analysis can be done using the Moving Particle Semi-Implicit method. The Moving Particle Semi-Implicit method is excellent in simulating the movement of liquid fuel in a reactor because it can analyze the free surface flow of an incompressible liquid without using a mesh grid. Simulations were carried out using three types of fluids with different viscosities and densities such as water, oil, and wax. The simulation results show that the water takes the fastest time to drain all the particles and the oil takes the longest time. From the simulation results, it can be determined that the kinematic viscosity of a liquid affects its flow velocity.