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
Decommissioning & Environmental Sciences
The mission of the Decommissioning and Environmental Sciences (DES) Division is to promote the development and use of those skills and technologies associated with the use of nuclear energy and the optimal management and stewardship of the environment, sustainable development, decommissioning, remediation, reutilization, and long-term surveillance and maintenance of nuclear-related installations, and sites. The target audience for this effort is the membership of the Division, the Society, and the public at large.
Meeting Spotlight
Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
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
September 2024
Nuclear Technology
August 2024
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
The JT-60SA project
JT-60SA (Japan Torus-60 Super Advanced) is the world’s largest superconducting tokamak device. Its goal is the earlier realization of fusion energy (see Fig. 1). Fusion is the energy that powers the Sun, and just 1 gram of deuterium-tritium (D-T) fuel produces enormous energy—the equivalent of 8 tons of crude oil.
Last fall, the JT-60SA project announced an important milestone: the achievement of the tokamak’s first plasma. This article describes the objectives of the JT-60SA project, achievements in the operation campaign for the first plasma, and next steps.
Jaques Reifman, Thomas Y. C. Wei
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 131 | Number 3 | March 1999 | Pages 329-347
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE99-A2038
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A novel first-principles-based diagnostic system called PRODIAG is proposed for on-line detection and identification of faulty components during incipient off-normal process conditions. The concepts of qualitative physics reasoning and function-oriented diagnostics are employed in the design of PRODIAG and result in two unique capabilities not found in other plant-level diagnostic systems. First, PRODIAG is fully portable as it requires only modification of the input files containing the appropriate process schematics information to be able to diagnose single-component failures in different processes/plants. Second, PRODIAG detects unanticipated faults. Hence, it does not require the prespecification and formulation of rules to cover every conceivable fault scenario, and unlike traditional approaches, it is not likely to misdiagnose unforeseen events. PRODIAG's approach is to map process symptoms into component faults through a three-step mapping procedure with a knowledge base containing three distinct types of information: qualitative macroscopic balance equation rules, functional classification of process components, and the process piping and instrumentation diagram. The concepts introduced in the proposed diagnostic system are described, and an illustrative example shows how they are used in plant-level diagnostics.