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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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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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Shifting the paradigm of supply chain
Chad Wolf
When I began my nuclear career, I was coached up in the nuclear energy culture of the day to “run silent, run deep,” a mindset rooted in the U.S. Navy’s submarine philosophy. That was the norm—until Fukushima.
The nuclear renaissance that many had envisioned hit a wall. The focus shifted from expansion to survival. Many utility communications efforts pivoted from silence to broadcast, showcasing nuclear energy’s elegance and reliability. Nevertheless, despite being clean baseload 24/7 power that delivered a 90 percent capacity factor or higher, nuclear energy was painted as risky and expensive (alongside energy policies and incentives that favored renewables).
Economics became a driving force threatening to shutter nuclear power. The Delivering the Nuclear Promise initiative launched in 2015 challenged the industry to sustain high performance yet cut costs by up to 30 percent.
Thomas K. S. Liang, Huan-Jen Hung, Chin-Jang Chang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 136 | Number 3 | December 2001 | Pages 292-300
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT01-A3246
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
With the consideration of mass unbalance, coolant shrinking, and compressibility, a model for reactor coolant leakage evaluation has been developed to quantify on-line the system leakage rate with conventional system measurements, regardless of where the leak occurs. This model has been derived from the system of total continuity, and it divides the reactor coolant system (RCS) into two regions, namely, the saturated and subcooled regions. The pressurizer is considered as a saturated region, and the remaining part of the RCS is regarded as a subcooled region. Taking the on-line measurements of the RCS including the RCS pressure, temperature, pressurizer water level, and charging and letdown flow rates, this model can directly evaluate on-line the RCS leakage rate. It is noted that this model is applicable only if the RCS remains subcooled. To verify the applicability of this model, data generated by RELAP5/MOD3 simulation and experimental measurements from the Institute of Nuclear Energy Research, Taiwan, Integral System Test Facility were adopted to assess this model. With further on-line verification against the Maanshan training simulator, this model was finally delivered to the Maanshan nuclear power plant (a three-looped Westinghouse pressurized water reactor) to assist the operator training and on-line evaluation of the RCS leakage rate. The smallest amount of leak flow that can be detected by the ROCK model is 3 gal/min.