ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Aug 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
October 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
August 2024
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.
Young Ho Park, Nam Zin Cho
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 111 | Number 1 | May 1992 | Pages 66-81
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE92-A23924
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
State feedback control provides many advantages, such as stabilization and improved transient response. However, when state feedback control is considered for spatial control of a nuclear reactor, it requires complete knowledge of the distributions of the system state variables. Also, if the reactor is in a transient, flux mapping systems that are based on steady-state conditions are not appropriate for an accurate representation of the operating state of the reactor. A method is described for reconstructing the measurable and unmeasurable state variables in a nuclear reactor from output measurement data, which can be used to generate input for a feedback control system or serve as a core observer (estimator) in a reactor transient. The method is based on a Luenberger-type observer theory that is extended to infinite-dimensional distributed parameter systems. The method was applied to a simple reactor model in one spatial dimension and one energy group with xenon dynamics that exhibited spatial oscillations. The resulting observer was tested by using model-based data for measurement output. The results show that the spatial distributions of iodine, xenon, and neutron flux are estimated very well by the observer using information from a finite number of sensors.