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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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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.”
Ioannis A. Papazoglou, Michalis D. Christou
Nuclear Technology | Volume 118 | Number 2 | May 1997 | Pages 97-122
Technical Paper | Nuclear Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT97-A35371
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A methodology for the optimization of the shortterm emergency response in the event of a nuclear accident is presented. The method seeks an optimum combination of protective actions in the presence of a multitude of conflicting objectives and under uncertainty. Conflicting objectives arise in the attempt to minimize simultaneously the potential adverse effects of an accident and the associated socioeconomic impacts. Additional conflicting objectives arise whenever an emergency plan tends to decrease a particular health effect, such as acute deaths, while it increases another, such as latent deaths. The uncertainty is due to the multitude of possible accident scenarios and their respective probability of occurrence, the stochastic variability in the weather conditions, and the variability and/or lack of knowledge of the parameters of the risk assessment models. A multiobjective optimization approach is adopted. An emergency protection plan consists of defining a protective action (e.g., evacuation and sheltering) at each spatial cell around the plant. Three criteria (evaluators) are used as the objective functions of the problem, namely, acute fatalities, latent effects, and socioeconomic cost. The optimization procedure defines the “efficient frontier,” i.e., all emergency plans that are not dominated by another in all three criteria. No value trade-offs are necessary up to this point. The most preferred emergency plan is then chosen among the set of efficient plans. Finally, the methodology is integrated into a computerized decision support system, and its use is demonstrated in a realistic application.