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Division Spotlight
Thermal Hydraulics
The division provides a forum for focused technical dialogue on thermal hydraulic technology in the nuclear industry. Specifically, this will include heat transfer and fluid mechanics involved in the utilization of nuclear energy. It is intended to attract the highest quality of theoretical and experimental work to ANS, including research on basic phenomena and application to nuclear system design.
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.”
Chun-Sheng Chien, Shih-Jen Wang, Te-Chuan Wang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 119 | Number 2 | August 1997 | Pages 194-200
Technical Note | Nuclear Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT97-A35386
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The MELCOR code is a severe accident analysis code for nuclear power plants. The steam generator dryout time in a station blackout (SBO) accident, which depends on the initial water inventory, is an important parameter in probabilistic risk assessment. Furthermore, the plant transient responses are strongly affected by the initial conditions. To simulate a consistent accident scenario with MELCOR, a correct initial steady-state condition must be generated. However, the current MELCOR users’ manual does not provide a self-initialization procedure. It is quite difficult to achieve the desired initial conditions through a trial-and-error approach. A MELCOR self-initialization algorithm for pressurized water reactor (PWR) plants and its importance in accident analysis is described. First, a MELCOR self-initialization algorithm for a PWR plant is developed and implemented with control functions provided in MELCOR; this is just an input feature in preparing the MELCOR input deck. The initialization work at full-power conditions of the Maanshan nuclear power station is cited as an example. These initial conditions are successfully generated within 50 s with the developed algorithm. Then, the initial responses and the predicted steam generator dryout time in an SBO accident are used to demonstrate the importance of the self-initialization algorithm. This algorithm provides the MELCOR users with a convenient initialization methodology and improves the simulation accuracy.