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Division Spotlight
Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
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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Latest News
TerraPower begins U.K. regulatory approval process
Seattle-based TerraPower signaled its interest this week in building its Natrium small modular reactor in the United Kingdom, the company announced.
TerraPower sent a letter to the U.K.’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, formally establishing its intention to enter the U.K. generic design assessment (GDA) process. This is TerraPower’s first step in deployment of its Natrium technology—a 345-MW sodium fast reactor coupled with a molten salt energy storage unit—on the international stage.
Tong Kyu Park, Han Gyu Joo, Chang Hyo Kim, Hyun Chul Lee
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 162 | Number 2 | June 2009 | Pages 134-147
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE162-134
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The problem of multiobjective fuel loading pattern (LP) optimization employing high-fidelity three-dimensional (3-D) models is resolved by introducing the concepts of discontinuous penalty function, dominance, and two-dimensional (2-D)-based screening into the simulated annealing (SA) algorithm. Each constraint and objective imposed on a reload LP design is transformed into a discontinuous penalty function that involves a jump to a quadratic variation at the point of the limiting value of the corresponding core characteristics parameter. It is shown that with this discontinuous form the sensitivity of the penalty coefficients is quite weak compared to the stochastic effect of SA. The feasible LPs found during SA update the set of candidate LPs through a dominance check that is done by examining multiple objectives altogether. The 2-D-based screening technique uses a precalculated database of the 2-D solution errors and is shown to be very effective in saving the SA computation time by avoiding 3-D evaluations for the unfavorable LPs that are frequently encountered in SA. Realistic applications of the proposed method to a pressurized water reactor reload LP optimization with the dual objectives of maximizing the cycle length and minimizing the radial peaking factor demonstrate that the method works quite well in practice.