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Division Spotlight
Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Winter Conference and Expo
November 17–21, 2024
Orlando, FL|Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld
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
Nuclear new build procurement considerations
It may seem counterintuitive, but the best time to enhance the ability to support operations and maintenance for a new plant is before construction starts. This is one of many lessons learned by the currently operating nuclear fleet. As construction and startup of many nuclear facilities was completed, it quickly became evident that the ability to efficiently support operations and maintenance was limited. Most of the information necessary to establish and manage procurement of spare and replacement items, maintenance, and configuration of the facilities was unavailable and had to be gathered on a case-by-case, “on-demand” basis. Absence of necessary information and the associated challenges resulted in the need for staff augmentation and multiyear-long projects to develop equipment bills of material and maintenance programs and to perform technical evaluations for the huge quantities of spare and replacement items being requested.
Gary E. Giles, Jr.
Nuclear Technology | Volume 117 | Number 3 | March 1997 | Pages 306-315
Technical Paper | Nuclear Fuel Cycle | doi.org/10.13182/NT97-A35345
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The safety analysis for the Advanced Neutron Source Reactor (ANSR) required the development of a new analysis technique to determine fuel integrity and to assure avoidance of critical heat flux (CHF) conditions. The ANSR is a research reactor design intended to provide the highest continuous neutron beam intensity of any reactor in the world. Reliance on previous safety analysis techniques such as those used in the High Flux Isotope Reactor would result in a design that would not meet the requirements. A more accurate but still conservative analysis technique was developed for the ANSR safety analyses. This technique, the local analysis technique (LAT), relaxed some of the overly conservative assumptions of previous hot-spot studies by using a large number of detailed analyses. The conditions used in these analyses were spread over the possible distributions found in specific designs. This technique was used to analyze several core designs to produce confidence in the fuel plate integrity that could be damaged by excessive fuel temperatures and avoidance of CHF conditions. This approach can be used for other reactor designs and should allow increases in the operating power levels. Alternatively, the LAT could be used to demonstrate increased safety margins for present operating conditions.