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Decommissioning & Environmental Sciences
The mission of the Decommissioning and Environmental Sciences (DES) Division is to promote the development and use of those skills and technologies associated with the use of nuclear energy and the optimal management and stewardship of the environment, sustainable development, decommissioning, remediation, reutilization, and long-term surveillance and maintenance of nuclear-related installations, and sites. The target audience for this effort is the membership of the Division, the Society, and the public at large.
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Orlando, FL|Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld
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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.
Yonghee Kim, Won Seok Park, Tae Yung Song, Chang Kue Park
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 143 | Number 2 | February 2003 | Pages 141-157
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE03-A2325
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The height-to-diameter (H/D) ratio of a lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE)-cooled accelerator-driven system (ADS) has been evaluated in terms of the neutron multiplication, the coolant void worth, and the coolant velocity. For a model ADS, an optimization of the H/D ratio is performed with a Monte Carlo code both for the effective multiplication factor keff and for the multiplication of the external neutrons. In the optimization, ten cases of H/D values have been analyzed for a homogeneous fuel blanket. Also, the dependency of the optimal H/D ratio on the target/buffer is addressed. The Monte Carlo simulations show that the optimal H/D configuration of the ADS core is quite different for the two important measures, and a high H/D ratio can provide a significantly higher source multiplication than the traditional pancake core. Furthermore, various core analyses including depletion calculations are conducted for three selected heterogeneous cores with different H/D ratios, which are a small H/D value (pancake type), a medium H/D value, and a high H/D value, respectively. Void reactivity coefficients of the LBE coolant are evaluated and compared for the three designs to quantify the effects of the H/D ratio. Additionally, a thermal-hydraulic analysis has been performed to derive a maximum allowable core height subject to the LBE velocity limit due to its corrosion and erosion characteristics. It is shown that the practically optimal H/D ratio for source multiplication is tightly constrained by the maximum allowable LBE velocity, depending on the core design parameters.