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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.
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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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.
Ian Wall and Henri Fenech
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 22 | Number 3 | July 1965 | Pages 285-297
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE65-A20933
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The fuel management optimization of a nuclear power plant is separable from the over-all optimum design. It has weak interactions with the core design and poison management which may be expressed by constraints upon the maximum permissible fuel burnup and ratio of peak-to-average power density (power peaking). Each time the reactor becomes subcritical, a decision must be made as to which fuel should be discharged and replaced and to what degree rearrangement is advantageous. This is a multistage decision process whose objective is the minimum power cost over the plant life. A dynamic programing algorithm and a computer program have been developed to optimize the refueling policies of a single-enrichment, three-zone, 1000-MWe PWR core for a minimum unit power cost. The major assumptions necessary for this method are the representation of the fuel composition by the sole parameter, burnup, and the prediction of the system behavior by least-squares polynomial curves fitted to prior calculations. These approximations have been verified and their accuracy is about 3%. Many problems are displayed to demonstrate the application of the method. The cost figures given in the numerical examples are for illustration purposes only and may not reflect current manufacturers' and utilities' policies.