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
Aerospace Nuclear Science & Technology
Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
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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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.
Jorma Karppinen, Rob M. Versluis, Bjørn Blomsnes
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 71 | Number 1 | July 1979 | Pages 1-17
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE79-A20325
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The problem of controlling the total power and power distribution in a large pressurized water reactor (PWR) core to follow a known time-varying load schedule has been formulated as a multistage optimization problem. The control problem is solved subject to hard constraints, which can be applied on total power, control variables and their rate of change, local power densities and their rate of change, and on more global power distribution measures such as axial and quadrant offsets. Based on a three-dimensional linearized nodal core model with some slightly nonlinear features, the optimal control problem is solved by quadratic programming. The method, called multistage mathematical programming, has been studied in simulations. A large PWR core, which was unstable with respect to both axial and azimuthal xenon oscillations, was represented by a simplified three-dimensional nonlinear nodal core simulator model. The three-dimensional oscillations were successfully damped at constant load, and an efficient anticipatory control was obtained for load cycling operation.
