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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.
Michael Scott McKinley, Farzad Rahnema
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 136 | Number 1 | September 2000 | Pages 15-33
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE00-A2145
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A perturbation method is developed for estimating the change in the solution of a reactive system to any order for a perturbation in the boundary condition in diffusion theory. The method derived gives formalisms for the eigenvalue, normalized flux, and homogenized parameters. Five examples are provided to verify the method as well as analyze the errors associated with it. The first example is very simple and solves the state of the system up to eighth order and gives a simple numerical analysis of a large perturbation. The next example gives an analytical solution up to second order. A two-region example is also given, which is partially numerical and partially analytical. An albedo test example shows that the higher-order terms all appear to be present in the formalism. The final example presents a simplified one-dimensional boiling water reactor core analyzed up to third order numerically. Applications of this method, error propagation, and future work are also discussed.