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Division Spotlight
Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
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.
C. Lombardi, A. Mazzola
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 122 | Number 2 | February 1996 | Pages 229-239
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE96-A24157
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The plutonium that comes from dismantled warheads and that is already stockpiled from commercial fuel reprocessing has raised many proposals for its burning in a safe and economical manner. The utilization is examined of current pressurized water reactors (PWRs) that are partially fed with a nonfertile oxide-type fuel, while the rest of the core is still fed with standard 235U-enriched fuel. The unconventional fuel consists of PuO2 diluted in an inert matrix, which should be highly radiation resistant, scarcely neutron absorbent, and chemically stable and which allows the final disposal of the discharged fuel without any treatment. Commercial PWRs operating in a once-through cycle scheme can transmute 97 to 99% of239Pu and 71 to 84% of total initially loaded reactor- and weapons-grade plutonium, respectively. The remnant plutonium is in a proliferation-resistant condition. The high initial reactivity of the plutonium-bearing rods causes a high initial rod power peak and continuously decreasing power generation in these rods during the irradiation. A less pronounced rod power peak in UO2 rods at end of life has to be addressed. The reactivity coefficients are, in absolute terms, slightly lower than the standard UO2 fuel ones.