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
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
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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August 2024
Nuclear Technology
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Latest News
Four million nuclear jobs by 2050: Who will do them?
Industry leaders from around the globe met this month to discuss the talent development that will be necessary for the long-term success of the nuclear industry.
The International Conference on Nuclear Knowledge Management and Human Resources Development, hosted by the International Atomic Energy Agency, was held in Vienna earlier this month. Discussed there was the agency’s forecast for nuclear capacity to more than double—or hopefully triple—by 2050 and the requirement of more than four million professionals to support the industry.
Abdo A. Husseiny, Zeinab A. Sabri, S. Keith Adams, Rodrigo J. Rodriguez
Nuclear Technology | Volume 90 | Number 1 | April 1990 | Pages 34-48
Technical Paper | Nuclear Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT90-A34384
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In consideration of the present interest in standalone nuclear power plants (NPPs) and the potential role of automation of land-based NPPs, a simplified two-level control model for operating a representative plant is assumed. Human factors analysis of three control strategies shows that replacing the senior operator level by a high-level supervisory fuzzy or rule-based controller provides a viable strategy that can free the senior operator for important operational tasks other than vigilance and attendance to details of equipment or subsystems operation. By monitoring plant performance and providing global control actions, the operator can play a more positive role in plant protection and power production. There is apparent mistrust of total reliance on com puters in NPP operation due to the questionable reliability of both hardware and software. However, the continuing need for partial or overall automation of NPPs has resulted in new efforts to develop fault-tolerant hardware and software for automatic controllers. Ultimately, automation will be required for stand-alone systems and unattended power generators, especially for future space stations. Of more immediate concern is the automation of safety functions in a manner that can enhance reliability and overcome system vulnerability to human-initiated errors. Automation may become commercially viable and licensable through proper design of the control system and of the architecture of processors as a means of assuring dependable automatic controllers.