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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
Conference on Nuclear Training and Education: A Biennial International Forum (CONTE 2025)
February 3–6, 2025
Amelia Island, FL|Omni Amelia Island Resort
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
Article considers incorporation of AI into nuclear power plant operations
The potential application of artificial intelligence to the operation of nuclear power plants is explored in an article published in late December in the Washington Examiner. The article, written by energy and environment reporter Callie Patteson, presents the views of a number of experts, including Yavuz Arik, a strategic energy consultant.
Ulf Tveten
Nuclear Technology | Volume 105 | Number 3 | March 1994 | Pages 322-333
Technical Paper | Nuclear Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT94-A34933
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper describes a task performed for the U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), consisting of using post-Chernobyl data from Norway to verify or find areas for possible improvement in the chronic exposure pathway models utilized in the NRC’s program for probabilistic risk analysis, level 3, of the MELCOR accident consequence code system (MACCS), developed at Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Because of unfortunate combinations of weather conditions, the levels of Chernobyl fallout in parts of Norway were quite high, with large areas contaminated to more than 100 kBq/m2 of radioactive cesium. Approximately 6% of the total amount of radioactive cesium released from Chernobyl is deposited on Norwegian territory, according to a countrywide survey performed by the Norwegian National Institute for Radiation Hygiene. Accordingly, a very large monitoring effort was carried out in Norway, and some of the results of this effort have provided important new insights into the ways in which radioactive cesium behaves in the environment. In addition to collection and evaluation of post-Chernobyl monitoring results, some experiments were also performed as part of the task. Some experiments performed pre-Chernobyl were also relevant, and some conclusions could be drawn from these. All the long-term exposure pathways routinely treated by MACCS were considered. The Chernobyl accident brought no new insights to the cloudshine exposure pathway, but understanding of the groundshine, soil-grass-milk, soil-grass-beef, and the freshwater exposure pathways was considerably improved. Much new valuable information on exposure pathways not routinely included in MACCS has also been gathered, but this aspect is not discussed in this paper. In most connections, the data available show the models and data in MACCS to be appropriate. A few areas where the data indicate that the MACCS approach is inadequate are, however, also pointed out in the paper. This concerns in particular root uptake to grass from soil and the freshwater exposure pathways. Both of these areas ought to be revised. It is also pointed out that MACCS’ inability in the present version to distinguish between chemical forms of cesium with different bioavailability may lead to conservative results. The task is limited to radioactive cesium, which proved to be by far the most important post-Chernobyl radionuclide in the Norwegian area.