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Division Spotlight
Nuclear Criticality Safety
NCSD provides communication among nuclear criticality safety professionals through the development of standards, the evolution of training methods and materials, the presentation of technical data and procedures, and the creation of specialty publications. In these ways, the division furthers the exchange of technical information on nuclear criticality safety with the ultimate goal of promoting the safe handling of fissionable materials outside reactors.
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Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
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
ARPA-E announces $40 million to develop transmutation technologies for UNF
The Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) announced $40 million in funding to develop cutting-edge technologies to enable the transmutation of used nuclear fuel into less-radioactive substances. According to ARPA-E, the new initiative addresses one of the agency’s core goals as outlined by Congress: to provide transformative solutions to improve the management, cleanup, and disposal of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel.
I. Hill, N. Soppera, M. Bossant
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 178 | Number 3 | November 2014 | Pages 280-294
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE14-37
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The 2014 International Handbook of Evaluated Reactor Physics Benchmark Experiments (IRPhEP Handbook) spans over 30 000 pages and contains 136 evaluations. In the handbook, evaluations are grouped by reactor type (light water reactor, heavy water reactor, liquid metal cooled fast reactor, etc.) and contain up to ten different types of measurements, each of which can be applied to code and nuclear data validation. Despite the thoughtful organization and strict format rules for evaluations, identifying suitable validation cases remains challenging. To assist with searching and trending the IRPhEP Handbook, a relational database and user interface named IDAT (IRPhEP Database and Analysis Tool) was developed. IDAT was first distributed with the 2013 edition of the IRPhEP Handbook and will be updated annually as evaluations are added and revised. Data characterizing the measurements were extracted to allow for searching and trending in IDAT. Measurement types in the database include criticality, buckling, spectral characteristics, reactivity effects, reactivity coefficients, kinetics, reaction rates, and power distribution measurements. Additionally, the database contains calculated quantities, such as neutron flux/capture/fission spectrum data, neutron balance data, and keff sensitivity data, along with tools to visualize these data. IDAT can employ data to assist in the identification of similar experiments using a variety of metrics, within a “Rank Similar” pane. For each measurement in the database, there is also a “Trending” pane, allowing multilevel plots of calculated over experimental values allowing users to drill down by applying various filters. This paper describes the creation of IDAT as well as its features.