by Dan Hughes
Larry Ybarrondo suggested that we offer some personal information about how we got to Camp NRTS. Larry and Don Curet have jumped in. Some of my background follows.
I have probably included way too much information here. Scrolling past is easy, however.
Continue reading “Dan Hughes: Background, to Camp NRTS, and Beyond”
by Dan Hughes
The Lewis Report, Report to the American Physical Society by the study group on light-water reactor safety by the American Physical Society, published in 1975, presented a good summary of the status and prospects of water reactor safety studies at that time. The Abstract says:
The issue of light-water reactor (LWR) safety has been the subject of a part-time, year-long study sponsored by the American Physical Society. The goal of the study was the assessment of some of the technical aspects of the safety of large light-water nuclear power reactors typical of present commercial practice in the Unted States. The report examines issues related to safe operation of LWRs; the research and development program responsible for establishing and enhancing safety; and the consequences of accidents for public health and welfare. The report in no way deals with the need for nuclear power or its benefits, and should not be considered as a net assessment of the risks versus the benefits of nuclear reactors. Since the risks of ecological impacts of other energy technologies are not addressed, no recommendations are made concerning the specific reactor program which should be followed in the immediate future. Among the areas covered in the report are primary pressure-vessel integrity; quality assurance; accident initiation from operator error, transients, and sabotage; the adequacy of present emergency core-cooling system designs; the calculation of long-term consequences to health of one particular low-probability accidental release of radioactivity; and the experimental and calculational (computer-code-development) aspects of the present reactor safety research program. A number of recommendations are contained with the report, mainly addressed to ways in which the safety of the present LWRs can be improved or better understood.
Way near the end are these photos of the LOFT test assembly.
by Dan Hughes
Ken Moore sends this list of people who worked on the LOFT experiment and associated activities: like RELAP, Models, Methods, and Software development, and management, and etc.
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 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.
Olde Camp NRTS 