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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.
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2024 ANS Winter Conference and Expo
November 17–21, 2024
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.
Sébastien Massart, Samuel Buis, Patrick Erhard, Guillaume Gacon
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 155 | Number 3 | March 2007 | Pages 409-424
Technical Paper | Mathematics and Computation, Supercomputing, Reactor Physics and Nuclear and Biological Applications | doi.org/10.13182/NSE07-A2673
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In this paper, data assimilation (DA) techniques that have proven to be efficient in the fields of meteorological forecast and oceanography are applied to neutronics problems. Two applications, the techniques of which can be used to enhance optimization, are presented: three-dimensional (3-D) neutronic field interpolation in online core monitoring, and parameter estimation in code qualification procedures. First, the main bases of DA theory are shortly presented. Calibration and estimation procedures that are in use today at Electricité de France (EDF) are then briefly introduced. We also analyze the main limitations of these procedures and the potential improvements that the use of various DA techniques can provide. We present the MANARA mock-up, which computes a 3-D field interpolation and has been implemented in PALM, a DA-dedicated coupling platform developed at the Centre Européen de Recerche et de Formation Avancée en Calcul Scientifique (CERFACS). Result validation and comparison with former interpolation procedure CAMARET are also presented. Next, the principles of the KAFEINE mock-up, based on an extended Kalman filter approach, are displayed. This application covers the field of optimal parameter calibration using the in-core measures. In conclusion, these first two applications to neutronics, carried out in partnership between CERFACS and EDF Research and Development, seem very promising, especially considering the new generation of neutronic solvers that are being developed in the frame of the DESCARTES project.