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Division Spotlight
Thermal Hydraulics
The division provides a forum for focused technical dialogue on thermal hydraulic technology in the nuclear industry. Specifically, this will include heat transfer and fluid mechanics involved in the utilization of nuclear energy. It is intended to attract the highest quality of theoretical and experimental work to ANS, including research on basic phenomena and application to nuclear system design.
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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September 2024
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August 2024
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Nuclear new build procurement considerations
It may seem counterintuitive, but the best time to enhance the ability to support operations and maintenance for a new plant is before construction starts. This is one of many lessons learned by the currently operating nuclear fleet. As construction and startup of many nuclear facilities was completed, it quickly became evident that the ability to efficiently support operations and maintenance was limited. Most of the information necessary to establish and manage procurement of spare and replacement items, maintenance, and configuration of the facilities was unavailable and had to be gathered on a case-by-case, “on-demand” basis. Absence of necessary information and the associated challenges resulted in the need for staff augmentation and multiyear-long projects to develop equipment bills of material and maintenance programs and to perform technical evaluations for the huge quantities of spare and replacement items being requested.
Li Cheng, Bin Zhong, Huayun Shen, Zehua Hu, Baiwen Li
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 194 | Number 1 | January 2020 | Pages 44-55
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2019.1650520
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
We propose an improved algorithm of generating scattering matrices based on the Monte Carlo method. The new algorithm can greatly improve convergence compared to the traditional approach of the collision estimator. The formula for estimating statistical errors in the new algorithm is given. How the new algorithm benefits the convergence without investing large neutron samples is analyzed, and we also point out that with properly partitioned energy groups, the precision of scattering matrices can get close to that of total scattering cross sections. The new algorithm has been implemented in the neutron transport code NPTS and validated with a number of critical benchmark problems.