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Division Spotlight
Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
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.
Jeffrey Lewins, Gordon R. Woodcock, Theodore J. Williamson, Albert L. Babb
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 31 | Number 2 | February 1968 | Pages 272-281
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE68-A18239
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Pontryagin's optimum theory is applied to the problem of determining a flux shutdown program that limits xenon poisoning in a reactor while using the minimum nuclear energy or flux time. The analysis shows several points of difference from the time-optimal problem. Solutions are found for both the unrestricted problem and the problem where the xenon density is restricted within the control period to some maximum acceptable poisoning. The method of solution is new in utilizing a more straightforward optimum theorem and (of necessity) giving the full adjoint solutions. A full solution to the restrained problem shows that a free end-time optimum solution rises at zero flux to the xenon restraint value and follows this value to the target curve, ending the problem. Not only is the energy optimal problem of some practical interest but it makes an excellent illustration of the complications of the continuum solution in optimal control and the very practical need to consider only those solutions satisfying certain state restraints.