ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
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Division Spotlight
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
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
Vogtle-3 shuts down for valve issue
One of the new Vogtle units in Georgia was shut down unexpectedly on Monday last week for a valve issue that has since been investigated and repaired. According to multiple local news outlets, Georgia Power reported on July 17 that Unit 3 was back in service.
Southern Company spokesperson Jacob Hawkins confirmed that Vogtle-3 went off line at 9:25 p.m. local time on July 8 “due to lowering water levels in the steam generators caused by a valve issue on one of the three main feedwater pumps.”
Tunc Aldemir, Giancarlo Torri, Marzio Marseguerra, Enrico Zio, Jeffrey A. Borkowski
Nuclear Technology | Volume 143 | Number 3 | September 2003 | Pages 247-255
Technical Paper | Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT03-A3414
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Estimation of xenon concentration at a given time instant is usually a difficult problem since the initial conditions are often unknown as well as a number of the model parameters. The feasibility of obtaining the model parameters of a point reactor xenon evolution model with genetic algorithms (GAs) has been investigated earlier using data obtained from a point reactor model under assumed conditions. Actual operational data from The Ohio State University Research Reactor (OSURR) and simulated operational data from the Oconee plant are used to extend this earlier work. It is shown that the point reactor model, joined with an efficient GA parameter estimation procedure, can be used for accurate prediction of global xenon evolution in small reactors (e.g., OSURR). It is also shown that this approach yields just qualitatively correct results in large reactors (e.g., Oconee) where spatial effects become significant. By continuously updating the model parameters obtained by GAs, xenon induced reactivity during transients can be estimated purely from the past reactivity and power data without a knowledge of initial conditions for 135Xe and 135I.