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Division Spotlight
Education, Training & Workforce Development
The Education, Training & Workforce Development Division provides communication among the academic, industrial, and governmental communities through the exchange of views and information on matters related to education, training and workforce development in nuclear and radiological science, engineering, and technology. Industry leaders, education and training professionals, and interested students work together through Society-sponsored meetings and publications, to enrich their professional development, to educate the general public, and to advance nuclear and radiological science and engineering.
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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.
Kirk A. Mathews
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 132 | Number 2 | June 1999 | Pages 155-180
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE99-A2057
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Discrete ordinates calculations are presumed to translate particles from cell to cell in the directions specified in the angular set. This should result in uncollided particles from a small source propagating through the spatial mesh in narrow beams in these directions. Accurate high-order angular quadratures presume accurately attenuated propagation in the intended directions. This work examines the ability of various spatial quadratures to propagate rays correctly. Some widely used methods are shown to fail at this fundamental task. Diamond-difference approximations introduce undamped lateral oscillations, resulting in severely unphysical flux representations. Nonlinear fixups can prevent negativity but do not correct the underlying failure to properly propagate rays. First-moment conserving schemes tend to be successful but can be degraded in performance by simplifying approximations that are often used. Characteristic schemes are shown to have significant advantages. New characteristic methods are developed here that are exact (in a certain sense) in propagating rays and that uncouple the calculation of adjacent spatial cells in the mesh sweep. This enables DO loops to be converted to DO INDEPENDENT loops, with obvious implications for vector and/or parallel implementations.