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Division Spotlight
Accelerator Applications
The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
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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Latest News
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.
Makoto Tsuiki, Sverre Hval
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 141 | Number 3 | July 2002 | Pages 218-235
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE02-A2279
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A new nodal diffusion method for the neutronics analysis of light water reactor cores has been developed. The method is based on an expansion of neutron fluxes within a node into a series of functions that are numerically obtained from single-assembly calculations without the process of assembly homogenization. The assembly heterogeneity effect can be taken into account in whole-core calculations in a consistent way with the heterogeneous single-assembly calculations, providing highly accurate results including intranodal pin-power distributions. The expansion coefficients are determined by a classical Ritz procedure in such a way that the solution becomes the most accurate - in the least squares sense - approximation to the exact solution. The present method was implemented in a two-dimensional nodal diffusion code and tested for benchmark cases both for boiling water reactors and pressurized water reactors. The root-mean-square errors of both node average powers and nodal maximum pin powers were observed to be <1%, with computing time of less than a few percent of the reference, fine-mesh calculation. It was also observed that the accuracy of the present method could be improved to almost any desired degree only by increasing the order of expansion polynomials.