Introduction by Dan Hughes
Ken Moore and co-workers formed the foundation of the tremendous success of generations of thermal-hydraulic model, methods, and T/H software development at Camp NRTS. Ken’s career spans T/H code history from RELAPSE in the early 1960s through RETRAN in the 2000s.
Updated May 5, 2017, to include copy of Ken’s presentation at the 10th International RETRAN Conference in Jackson, Wyoming in 2001.
by Dan Hughes
From time to time I mention that based on our results at Camp NRTS, Lance, through EPRI, supported research at other organizations.
by Don Curet
I arrived from college at camp NRTS in 1963 employed by Phillips Petroleum of Bartlesville, OK and its president “Boots” Adams at a time when gun racks in trucks, with rifles and shotguns, were prevalent everywhere. I sat in a waiting room at TAN with Vic Berta for a couple of weeks waiting for security clearance. Once inside the TAN offices I was assigned to the SNAPTRAN program doing odds and ends jobs for T.R. Wilson, Skeet Bentzen, and, my favorite and immediate supervisor, George Brockett. Don’t remember the odds and ends jobs but do remember my “Surveillance Physicist” (SP) assignments. A few of the new hires had their turn as SPs. Continue reading “Olde Camp NRTS and Beyond”
by Ken Moore
I think EI was formed by Chuck Rice, Norm Sowards, Roger Griebe, and Lois Nickum. At that time I was still working for Aerojet Nuclear. Dr. C. K. Leper, president of Aerojet Nuclear Company, made a speech to the employees (September 12, 1973) at the civic auditorium in Idaho Falls about the past achievements and future work. One of his comments that made me decide to leave the site was as follows.
by Dan Hughes
Oh my. Look what I found.
Click to see the whole thing in both cases.
Update Thursday May 4, 2017
Ken has sent a little history about getting the paper accepted by the American Nuclear Society. (The vertical gray lines are by EDH’s scanner.) 
Here’s the paper.
by Larry Ybarrondo
Hello Dan and whoever else may be on distribution: Thank you for the update and the publications list. At the moment, I don’t have access to my ‘Library’ on NRTS (National Reactor Testing Station) publications. However, I have to believe that ‘somewhere on this planet’ the publications from the NRTS still exist in for example, Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) document files. I suspect such files from the AEC would be available through the current Nuclear Regulatory Commission or the Department of Energy. Which agency probably depends how the files were divided when those two agencies Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission were formed from the old AEC. I bet the library at each of these agencies could be helpful in locating the original AEC files.
It might be useful to contact the library at the INL and ask them to help in locating such files.
It also might be of interest for our meeting for various ‘volunteers’ to describe how they got to the National Reactor Testing Station, also known as, Idaho National Engineering Laboratory now.
So, my good friend Dan, Let me volunteer my story.
by Dan Hughes
While reviewing the literature for this publication:
R. B. Duffey and D. Hughes, 2016, “The Safety of Advanced Reactors”, Chapter 16 in Igor Pioro (Editor), Handbook of Generation IV Nuclear Reactors, Woodhead Publishing, Amsterdam. [Get your very own copy]
I ran across a lot of information about some of the very first research into use of Natural Circulation (NC) coolant flows in nuclear reactors. Camp NRTS played a major role in this original research. Some of what I wrote follows.
Updated Friday April 21: I have noticed that the link I gave to Haroldson’s book does not point to uploaded copies to either my DropBox or WordPress servers. And additionally points to the wrong material. I’ve updated the post to correct the problem.
I’m almost certain that this sentence should have been indicated to be a quote:
The results of geysering instabilities could be observed from a nearby public transportation roadway. [End Update]
Continue reading “Early Argonne National Laboratory at Camp NRTS”
Remembering the SL-1 Accident 52 Years Later
By Ken Moore
July 19, 2013
I was a young engineer working at the MTR (Materials Testing Reactor) for Phillips Petroleum Company, a contractor to the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission, in the research group headed by Deslonde deBoisblanc and my direct supervision was Bill Byron. As I now remember, this was the time era when I was programming the IBM 650 computer to solve the reactor kinetics equations for hypothetical rod ejection accidents. When the SL-1 reactor accident occurred the night of January 3, 1961, I had been working at the National Reactor Testing Station (NRTS) for about four years.
by Dan Hughes
As I have mentioned from time to time, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) in general, and Lance Agee in particular, played major roles in the success of the R & D for water reactor operation and safety undertaken by some of the various companies that arose as the great exodus from Camp NRTS got underway in the mid 1970s.
I’ll give some of my recollections in the following notes.
Continue reading “Energy Incorporated, Electric Power Research Institute, Lance Agee, and RETRAN”
by Dan Hughes
This is the second of a few posts that summarize some of the activities within the New Analysis Development Activity (NADA) group in the early- to mid-1970s.
They were best of exciting times. We were decades ahead of the world.
They were the worst of times. Management at the USNRC dismissed the very significant number of years of experience and expertise represented by the group members. That same USNRC had paid for the advances that they threw out the window.
Update Tuesday June 22, 2017: This post might make more sense after reading Part 0
Update Tuesday April 18, 2017: I have corrected the nomenclature based on information from Chuck Solbrig.
Continue reading “Models, Methods, and Software Research at Olde Camp NRTS: Part 1”
Olde Camp NRTS 