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Division Spotlight
Materials Science & Technology
The objectives of MSTD are: promote the advancement of materials science in Nuclear Science Technology; support the multidisciplines which constitute it; encourage research by providing a forum for the presentation, exchange, and documentation of relevant information; promote the interaction and communication among its members; and recognize and reward its members for significant contributions to the field of materials science in nuclear technology.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Winter Conference and Expo
November 17–21, 2024
Orlando, FL|Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld
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
November 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
A proactive approach to reactor vessel aging management
Unit 2 at the Prairie Island nuclear power plant near Red Wing, Minn., underwent an outage in fall 2023, which included extensive work on the reactor vessel using a novel approach to replace baffle-former bolts and lower radial clevis insert bolts. The work relied on extensive analysis beforehand to determine which bolts to replace such that only the new bolts were structurally credited for performance of their safety function. This proactive approach eliminated the need for costly contingencies associated with inspections.
Jinghua Jiang, Yuanchen Qin, Lili Tong, Xuewu Cao, Songlin Liu, Xiaoman Cheng
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 80 | Number 8 | November 2024 | Pages 960-975
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2023.2271234
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR) is presently in the engineering design phase, and it is crucial to establish a thermal-hydraulic safety analysis method. First of all, the identification of phenomena in selected accident scenarios affecting reactor safety performance metrics should be focused on with the phenomenon identification and ranking table (PIRT), in which phenomena related to the thermal-hydraulic safety of the vacuum vessel and related systems are screened, including both design-basis accidents and beyond-design-basis accidents.
The development of this PIRT exercise for CFETR thermal-hydraulic safety is addressed in this study; specifically, the importance ranking and stage of knowledge (SoK) of phenomena in the selected accidents are evaluated by the PIRT panel. The results of the PIRT analysis revealed that there exist certain safety-critical phenomena for which SoK is relatively low despite their perceived significance in safety performance metrics, which include the phase change of coolant, the migration of the multicomponent gas mixture, the migration of radionuclides within confinement, and the dispersion of gaseous radionuclides in the atmosphere. Ongoing research works and follow-up plans to improve the SoK of phenomena are presented.