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Division Spotlight
Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
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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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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.
H. Brockmann
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 132 | Number 1 | May 1999 | Pages 127-134
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE99-A2054
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In calculating neutral particle transport through elongated voids with the discrete ordinates method, the problem of ray effect may occur if standard angular quadrature sets are used. To mitigate this ray effect, the configuration-factor concept developed in the theory of thermal radiation for calculating the radiation exchange among surfaces is applied here. The common configuration-factor concept is extended in such a way that the angular dependence of the radiation emitted from the surfaces can be considered. The method is applied to regular and annular cylinders with r-z geometry and incorporated into a two-dimensional discrete ordinates transport code. Calculations on a narrow-duct-streaming problem show that the ray effect is strongly reduced by this method. The new method gives results equivalent to or even better than a standard discrete ordinates calculation using a biased angular quadrature set with 166 directions at computing times for one inner iteration that are about a factor of 2 less.