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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.
Meeting Spotlight
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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Nuclear Science and Engineering
August 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
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.
L. Lefebvre, M. Segond, R. Spaggiari, L. Le Gratiet, E. Deri, B. Iooss, G. Damblin
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 197 | Number 8 | August 2023 | Pages 2136-2149
Technical papers from: PHYSOR 2022 | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2023.2206769
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In pressurized nuclear reactors, steam generators are massive tubular heat exchangers transferring heat from the primary to the secondary fluid to produce the steam needed by the turbines. After several years of operation, because of deposit, their tube support plates (TSPs) can undergo clogging that may cause important economic and safety issues in case of nonpreventive actions. To understand and predict this phenomenon, several nondestructive examinations can generally be gathered at various times during the heat exchanger operation. A numerical mechanistic model has been recently developed and implemented in a dedicated computer code. The objective of this work is to improve the modeling of the clogging phenomenon to increase the predictive capability of the computer code. A global sensitivity analysis, based on Sobol’ indices, is first performed by the use of a metamodel that is learned on several runs of the computer code. Such an analysis, cast under a physical perspective, helps the identification of the most influential physical parameters and paves the way to a better understanding of TSP clogging. A Bayesian calibration of an epistemic calibration model parameter is then applied to fit the simulation results to experimental data. The additional information coming from the experimental data is then transferred to the calibration parameter with a mathematical model (artificial neural network). The resulting hybrid model thus compensates some lacks of the initial physical model on the considered data set.