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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.
Hans Ludewig
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 27 | Number 3 | March 1967 | Pages 549-556
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE86-A17620
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An investigation was conducted to estimate the error when a flat-flux approximation is used to compute the resonance integral for a simple absorber element embedded in a neutron source. An integral equation describing the collision rate as a function of energy, position, and angle is constructed and subsequently specialized to the case of energy and spatial dependence. This equation is further simplified by expanding the spatial dependence in a series of Legendre polynomials. In this form, the effects of slowing down and flux depression may be accounted for to any degree of accuracy desired. The resulting integral equation for the energy dependence is thus solved numerically, considering the slowing down and the infinite-mass model as separate cases. From the solution obtained by the above method, the error ascribable to the flat-flux approximation is obtained. In addition to this, the error introduced in the resonance integral in assuming no slowing down in the absorber is deduced.