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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.
Robert E. Howe
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 86 | Number 2 | February 1984 | Pages 157-167
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE84-A18198
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Fission neutron multiplicities have been measured for neutrons incident on 232Th with energies ranging from 1.1 to 49 MeV and for neutrons incident on 235U with energies from 17 to 49 MeV. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory 100-MeV electron Linac was used to produce a white source of neutrons. Incident neutron energies were measured using time-of-flight techniques. Fission neutrons were detected in a liquid scintillator using pulse-shape discrimination. All 232Th neutron multiplicities were measured relative to 235U at each incident neutron energy. Above 15 MeV the multiplicities were determined for 232Th and 235U by using lower energy data from the 235U sample to measure the neutron detector efficiency. Corrections for angular anisotropy and spectral temperatures of the fission neutrons were minimized through the use of a spherical shell of 235U surrounding the fission chamber. The present results for 232Th extend available multiplicity data into the previously unreported regions: 1.1 to 1.3 MeV and 17 to 49 MeV. The 235U results also extend significantly beyond previously reported data. For the 232Th case, previously observed deviations from linearity below 2 MeV and near the (n, n′f) threshold have been confirmed. In addition, this experiment suggests a continued rise in neutron multiplicity with decreasing incident neutron energy down to 1.1 MeV. A value for of 231Th(n,f) is inferred from the 232Th results above the (n,n′f) threshold. The 232Th measurements reported here for neutron energies above 15 MeV show an average value of , which agrees with a value calculated from the binding energies of the pre-scission evaporated neutrons and the assumed mean kinetic energies. The 235U data do not exhibit such a close agreement, suggesting that shell effects may be disappearing more rapidly in this nucleus as the excitation energy increases.