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Aerospace Nuclear Science & Technology
Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
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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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NRC engineers share their expertise at the University of Puerto Rico
Robert Roche-Rivera and Marcos Rolón-Acevedo are licensed professional engineers who work at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. They are also alumni of the University of Puerto Rico–Mayagüez (UPRM) and have been sharing their knowledge and experience with students at their alma mater since last year, serving as adjunct professors in the university’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. During the 2023–2024 school year, they each taught two courses: Fundamentals of Nuclear Science and Engineering, and Nuclear Power Plant Engineering.
Ahmad M. Ibrahim, Paul P. H. Wilson, Mohamed E. Sawan, Scott W. Mosher, Douglas E. Peplow, John C. Wagner, Thomas M. Evans, Robert E. Grove
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 181 | Number 1 | September 2015 | Pages 48-59
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE14-94
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The well-established Consistent Adjoint Driven Importance Sampling (CADIS) and the Forward Weighted Consistent Adjoint Driven Importance Sampling (FW-CADIS) hybrid Monte Carlo/deterministic techniques have dramatically increased the efficiency of neutronics simulations, yielding accurate solutions for increasingly complex problems through full-scale, high-fidelity simulations. However, for full-scale simulations of very large and geometrically complex nuclear energy systems, even the CADIS and FW-CADIS techniques can reach the CPU and memory limits of all but the very powerful supercomputers. In this work, three mesh adaptivity algorithms were developed to reduce the computational resource requirements of CADIS and FW-CADIS without sacrificing their efficiency improvements. First, a macromaterial approach was developed to enhance the fidelity of the deterministic models without changing the mesh. Second, a deterministic mesh refinement algorithm was developed to generate meshes that capture as much geometric detail as possible without exceeding a specified maximum number of mesh elements. Finally, a weight window (WW) coarsening (WWC) algorithm was developed to decouple the WW mesh and energy bins from the mesh and energy group structure of the deterministic calculations. By removing the memory constraint of the WW map from the resolution of the mesh and the energy group structure of the deterministic calculations, the WWC algorithm allows higher-fidelity deterministic calculations that, consequently, increase the efficiency and reliability of the CADIS and the FW-CADIS simulations. The three algorithms were used to enhance an FW-CADIS calculation of the prompt dose rate throughout the ITER experimental facility. Using these algorithms increased both the number of mesh tally elements in which nonzero results were obtained (+23.3%) and the overall efficiency of the calculation (a factor of >3.4). The three algorithms enabled this difficult calculation to be accurately solved using an FW-CADIS simulation on a 94-CPU computer cluster, eliminating the need for a world-class supercomputer.