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Division Spotlight
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
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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Latest News
New laws offer nuclear industry incentives for existing power plant uprates
This year, the U.S. nuclear industry received a much-needed economic boost that could help preserve operating nuclear power plants and incentivize upgrades that extend their lifespan and power output.
Signed into law in 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act offers production tax credits (PTCs) for existing nuclear power plants and either PTCs or investment tax credits (ITCs) for new carbon-free generation. These credits could make power uprates—increasing the maximum power level at which a commercial plant may operate—a much more appealing option for utilities.
Peter M. Song, Mahmoud Z. Youssef, Mohamed A. Abdou
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 113 | Number 4 | April 1993 | Pages 339-366
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE93-A15333
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A new approach for treating the sensitivity and uncertainty in the secondary energy distribution (SED) and the secondary angular distribution (SAD) has been developed, and the existing two-dimensional sensitivity/uncertainty analysis code, FORSS, was expanded to incorporate the new approach. The calculational algorithm was applied to the 9Be(n,2n) cross section to study the effect of the current uncertainties in the SED and SAD of neutrons emitted from this reaction on the prediction accuracy of the tritium production rate from 6Li (T6) and 7Li (T7) in an engineering-oriented fusion integral experiment of the U.S. Department of Energy/Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute Collaborative Program on Fusion Neutronics in which beryllium was used as a neutron multiplier. In addition, the analysis was extended to include the uncertainties in the integrated smooth cross sections of beryllium and other materials that constituted the test assembly used in the experiment. This comprehensive two-dimensional cross-section sensitivity/uncertainty analysis aimed at identifying the sources of discrepancies between calculated and measured values for T6 and T7. Without considering the uncertainties in the SED and SAD of the 9Be(n,2n) cross section, the uncertainties in T6 are ∼2 to 3% in the Li2O breeding zone, whereas they are ∼10% when the uncertainties in the SED and SAD are included. The contribution from the uncertainties in the SAD was small (∼1%) compared with the contribution from the uncertainties in the SED. As for T7, the uncertainties in the Li2O zone with and without considering the SED and SAD results are 4 to 7 and 2 to 5.5%, respectively. The estimated uncertainties in T6 and T7 could partly cover the observed discrepancies between calculations and measurements, although other sources have been identified. Although the approach followed to complete the uncertainty analysis is not standard because of the absence of an existing file that contains the uncertainty information in the SED and SAD of the 9Be(n,2n) reaction, the results obtained by introducing approximations to these data clearly demonstrate the importance of accounting for the uncertainties in the SED and SAD when a complete cross-section sensitivity/uncertainty analysis is to be performed.