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Radiation Protection & Shielding
The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
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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.
Man Gyun Na, Dong Won Jung, Sun Mi Lee
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 148 | Number 1 | September 2004 | Pages 153-161
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE04-A2447
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A receding horizon control method is used to solve on-line, at each time step, an optimization problem for a finite future interval and to implement the first optimal control input as the current control input. The receding horizon control method is combined with a parameter estimator to overcome the problems of the linear modeling and time-varying characteristics of a process. It is a suitable control strategy for time-varying systems, in particular, because the parameter estimator identifies a controller design model recursively at each time step, and also the receding horizon controller recalculates an optimal input at each time step by using newly measured signals. The proposed controller is applied to the axial power distribution control in a pressurized water reactor. The reactor dynamics model used for computer simulations is a two-point xenon oscillation model in which the reactor core is axially divided into two regions (upper and lower halves) and each region is assumed to have a single input and a single output and to be coupled with the other region. It is shown from numerical simulations that the proposed controller exhibits very fast tracking responses due to the step and ramp changes of axial target shape and also works well in a time-varying parameter condition.