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Materials Science & Technology
The objectives of MSTD are: promote the advancement of materials science in Nuclear Science Technology; support the multidisciplines which constitute it; encourage research by providing a forum for the presentation, exchange, and documentation of relevant information; promote the interaction and communication among its members; and recognize and reward its members for significant contributions to the field of materials science in nuclear technology.
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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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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.
Michael Y. Hua, Braden Goddard, Cody Lloyd, Evan C. Leppink, Sara A. Abraham, Jordan D. Noey, Shaun D. Clarke, Sara A. Pozzi
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 194 | Number 2 | February 2020 | Pages 154-162
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2019.1654329
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In this work, an epithermal neutron multiplicity counter (ENMC) and an organic scintillator multiplicity counter (OSMC) are compared in the assay of 237Np, a potentially weapons-usable isotope, using active neutron multiplicity counting. In active neutron multiplicity counting, the neutron doubles and triples multiplicity rates are used to analytically calculate sample mass. To distinguish the masses of two different samples, the measured triples and doubles rates of each sample must be separated by 1σ. The time it takes each system to separate the measured triples multiplicity rates was compared using 20 metal samples of 237Np with masses logarithmically distributed between 10 and 1000 g. The results show that the OSMC can distinguish the smallest masses (10.0 and 12.7 g) beyond 1σ in 20 min and that the ENMC requires more than 400 times the measurement time to obtain the same precision. Similarly, the OSMC is at least 4.5 times faster than the ENMC in separating the doubles multiplicity rates.