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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
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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
Securing the advanced reactor fleet
Physical protection accounts for a significant portion of a nuclear power plant’s operational costs. As the U.S. moves toward smaller and safer advanced reactors, similar protection strategies could prove cost prohibitive. For tomorrow’s small modular reactors and microreactors, security costs must remain appropriate to the size of the reactor for economical operation.
Yu-Huai Shih, Te-Chuan Wang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 193 | Number 2 | February 2016 | Pages 247-258
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NT14-118
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
When an accident occurs, operators in nuclear power plants (NPPs) must follow emergency operating procedures (EOPs) or severe accident management guidelines (SAMGs). However, EOPs and SAMGs are symptom-based procedures and guidelines to cope with severe transients and accidents. Operators depend on real-time operating parameters of NPPs to perform each action in EOPs or SAMGs. When a beyond-design-basis accident like the Fukushima Daiichi accident of 2011 occurs, EOPs or SAMGs cannot be performed effectively without adequate information. One lesson learned from the Fukushima accident is that such a situation requires advance preparation regarding the key indicators, the water supply, reactor pressure vessel (RPV) depressurization, and containment venting strategies so actions can be performed with limited manpower and time. After the Fukushima accident, Taiwan Power Company established ultimate response guidelines (URGs) and has implemented them in three operating NPPs. An URG is an event-based guideline developed to manage accidents caused by a compound disaster beyond the design basis. The purpose of this study is to find out the differences of RPV depressurization strategies between EOPs and URGs and to discuss the effect of different RPV depressurization strategies on fuel integrity. The plant responses and accident physical phenomena are simulated using MAAP5. The results show that the RPV water level should be maintained as high as possible and the RPV pressure should be controlled sufficiently low at the beginning of RPV emergency depressurization to avoid core uncovery and assure fuel integrity. The URG provides the better RPV depressurization strategy to respond to a beyond-design-basis accident and mitigate an anticipated severe accident consequence as early as possible.