ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Division Spotlight
Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Aug 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
October 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
August 2024
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.
Young Jin Kim,* Thomas J. Downar, Alexander Sesonske
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 96 | Number 2 | June 1987 | Pages 85-101
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE87-A16369
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A method was developed to optimize pressurized water reactor low-leakage core reload designs that features the decoupling and sequential optimization of the fuel arrangement and control problems. The two-stage optimization process provides the maximum cycle length for a given fresh fuel loading subject to power peaking constraints. In the first stage, a best fuel arrangement is determined at the end of cycle (EOC) in the absence of all control poisons by employing a direct search method. The constant power, Haling depletion is used to provide the cycle length and EOC power peaking for each candidate core fuel arrangement. In the second stage, the core control poison requirements to meet the core peaking constraints throughout the cycle are determined using an approximate nonlinear programming technique. For the core description, the design method utilizes a currently recognized licensing-type code, SIMULATE-E, that was adapted to the CYBER-205 computer. The methodology was applied to the core reload design for cycles 9 and 10 of the Commonwealth Edison Company (CECo) Zion-1 reactor. The results showed that, compared with the reference design used by CECo, the optimum loading pattern for cycle 9 yielded almost a 9% increase in the cycle length while reducing core vessel fluence by 30%. Cycle length increase is a direct measure of economic savings for a given fuel loading. The results of cycle 10 optimization produced similar improvements. Should cycle length constraints apply, the procedure could be used to yield a decrease in fuel enrichment, with comparable savings resulting.