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Division Spotlight
Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
Meeting Spotlight
Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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Nuclear Science and Engineering
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Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
The fire that powers the universe: Harnessing inertial fusion energy
It was a laser shot for the ages. By achieving fusion ignition on December 5, 2022, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory proved that recreating the “fire” that fuels the sun and the stars inside a laboratory on Earth was indeed scientifically possible.
Gray S. Chang, John M. Ryskamp
Nuclear Technology | Volume 129 | Number 3 | March 2000 | Pages 326-337
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT00-A3065
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An experiment containing weapons-grade mixed-oxide (WG-MOX) fuel has been designed and is being irradiated in the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL). The ability to accurately predict fuel pin performance is an essential requirement for the MOX fuel test assembly design. Detailed radial fission power and temperature profile effects and fission gas release in the fuel pin are a function of the fuel pin's temperature, fission power, and fission product and actinide concentration profiles. In addition, the burnup-dependent profile analyses in irradiated fuel pins is important for fuel performance analysis to support the potential licensing of the MOX fuel made from WG-plutonium and depleted uranium for use in U.S. reactors.The MCNP Coupling With ORIGEN2 burnup calculation code (MCWO) can analyze the detailed burnup profiles of WG-MOX and reactor-grade mixed-oxide (RG-MOX) fuel pins. The validated code MCWO can provide the best-estimate neutronic characteristics of fuel burnup performance analysis. Applying this capability with a new minicell method allows calculation of detailed nuclide concentration and power distributions within the MOX pins as a function of burnup. This methodology was applied to MOX fuel in a commercial pressurized water reactor and in an experiment currently being irradiated in the ATR. The prediction of nuclide concentration profiles and power distributions in irradiated MOX pins via this new methodology can provide insights into MOX fuel performance.