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Division Spotlight
Robotics & Remote Systems
The Mission of the Robotics and Remote Systems Division is to promote the development and application of immersive simulation, robotics, and remote systems for hazardous environments for the purpose of reducing hazardous exposure to individuals, reducing environmental hazards and reducing the cost of performing work.
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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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.
Guy Shtotland, Assaf Kolin, Benoit Geslot, Patrick Blaise, Nir Kastin
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 197 | Number 8 | August 2023 | Pages 1733-1742
Technical papers from: PHYSOR 2022 | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2023.2174761
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Kinetic neutron parameters are of fundamental importance in the field of nuclear reactor dynamics and control. Moreover, the precursor yield fraction and the neutron generation time for a given nuclear reactor are dependent on the properties of the reactor. Thus, in-pile experiments, such as oscillation experiments and noise experiments, are commonly conducted to measure those values. In this work, a method for determining the kinetic parameters of a reactor along with their covariance data from in-pile experiments is presented. It is performed by combining values of the reactor’s response function obtained from both oscillation and noise experiments over a wide range of frequencies. The method is carried out for the MINERVE zero power reactor (ZPR) using a reanalysis of both oscillation and noise experiments that were conducted in the MINERVE reactor in 2013 and 2014. Moreover, various advantages and disadvantages of performing multiple in-pile experiments and combining their results in order to obtain a single set of kinetic parameters along with their covariance data are considered. Some suggestions for the design of such in-pile experiments are also discussed.