SiGA woven silicon carbide nuclear fuel cladding. (Photo: DOE)
Because of its hardness and its hardiness in the face of high temperatures, silicon carbide has been used for industrial purposes for decades. It has proven its worth as a key component of tiny TRISO fuel particles. But SiC has a weakness—in its pure form it is too brittle for use in structural components, such as 12-foot-long light water reactor fuel cladding tubes.
The radiochemistry laboratory, nicknamed the McCluskey Room, in the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant is where Harold McCluskey was contaminated in 1976, and where workers reentered more than 40 years later to clean up the mess left over from that accident. Health physics technician Clay Rowan is shown here taking radiological measurements near racks of glove boxes similar to one that exploded onto McCluskey. (Photo: DOE)
In 1976 at the Hanford Site in Washington state, a 64-year-old chemical operations technician named Harold McCluskey was working on columns filled with special exchange resins in a glove box at the Plutonium Finishing Plant.
The partially constructed Units 3 and 4 at Cernavoda nuclear plant in Romania. (Image: Nuclearelectrica)
The European Commission has issued a positive opinion on the technical and nuclear safety aspects of the construction of Units 3 and 4 at Cernavoda nuclear power plant in Romania.
Under the Euratom Treaty, nuclear project developers are required to notify the EC of planned investments and to demonstrate compliance with the highest nuclear safety standards.
A view of INL’s desert site. (Photo: INL)
Aalo reported last week that it has submitted a regulatory engagement plan to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in “a huge step forward in getting regulatory approval for our Aalo-1 reactor.”
Mersin Province (in red) in Turkey. (Image: TUBS)
While commissioning began earlier this year at Turkey’s first nuclear plant, new reports say the project is delayed by sanctions against Russia due to its military invasion of Ukraine.
An aerial photo of Three Mile Island nuclear power station. (Photo: Constellation)
Constellation Energy is in talks with the governor’s office and state legislators about funding to restart a unit at Three Mile Island nuclear plant, Reuters has reported. The ongoing talks have been described as “beyond preliminary” by two sources.
Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, prewar. (Photo: Energoatom)
An external radiation monitoring station was taken out by shelling and fire near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine the last week of June.
This brings the total to four of the plant’s 14 radiation monitoring sites that are out of commission, further reducing the effectiveness of its off-site capability to detect and measure any radioactive release during an emergency, said IAEA director general Rafael Mariano Grossi.
SRS Apprenticeship Program graduates Terrence Tillman (far right) and Shanterra Hughes share their recent apprenticeship experiences with NPR host David Brancaccio (center) and NPR sound engineer Rebekah Wineman. (Photo: DOE)
A new radio series on National Public Radio’s “Marketplace Morning Report” recently highlighted career opportunities and job training at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site.
To listen to the radio segment, click here.
Marcos Rolón-Acevedo (left) and Robert Roche-Rivera pose at UPRM at the beginning of their adjunct professorships in August 2023. (Photo: NRC/UPRM)
Robert Roche-Rivera and Marcos Rolón-Acevedo are licensed professional engineers who work at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. They are also alumni of the University of Puerto Rico–Mayagüez (UPRM) and have been sharing their knowledge and experience with students at their alma mater since last year, serving as adjunct professors in the university’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. During the 2023–2024 school year, they each taught two courses: Fundamentals of Nuclear Science and Engineering, and Nuclear Power Plant Engineering.
