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Division Spotlight
Young Members Group
The Young Members Group works to encourage and enable all young professional members to be actively involved in the efforts and endeavors of the Society at all levels (Professional Divisions, ANS Governance, Local Sections, etc.) as they transition from the role of a student to the role of a professional. It sponsors non-technical workshops and meetings that provide professional development and networking opportunities for young professionals, collaborates with other Divisions and Groups in developing technical and non-technical content for topical and national meetings, encourages its members to participate in the activities of the Groups and Divisions that are closely related to their professional interests as well as in their local sections, introduces young members to the rules and governance structure of the Society, and nominates young professionals for awards and leadership opportunities available to members.
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
ARPA-E announces $40 million to develop transmutation technologies for UNF
The Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) announced $40 million in funding to develop cutting-edge technologies to enable the transmutation of used nuclear fuel into less-radioactive substances. According to ARPA-E, the new initiative addresses one of the agency’s core goals as outlined by Congress: to provide transformative solutions to improve the management, cleanup, and disposal of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel.
R. Pericas, K. Ivanov, F. Reventós, L. Batet
Nuclear Technology | Volume 198 | Number 2 | May 2017 | Pages 193-201
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2017.1299493
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper compares the Best-Estimate Plus Uncertainty (BEPU) methodology with the Conservative Bounding methodology for design-basis-accident analysis. Calculations have been performed with TRACE [for thermal-hydraulic (TH) system calculations] and PARCS [for neutron-kinetics (NK) modeling] under the SNAP platform. DAKOTA is used under the SNAP interface for uncertainty and sensitivity analysis. A simplified three-dimensional (3-D) neutronics model of the Ascó II nuclear power plant is used as the core kinetic model. The TH model is a one-dimensional representation of the primary and secondary systems except for the vessel, which is represented by a 3-D VESSEL component. The design-basis transient selected for the comparison is a main steam line break (MSLB) in a pressurized water reactor. This transient is characterized by space-time effects and requires coupled 3-D kinetics and TH modeling, especially for the recriticality scenario. The comparison methodology is as follows. Once the models are created, a best-estimate base case calculation is performed. The model is modified by selecting the most important parameters and assigning conservative values to them in order to obtain a conservative calculation. Several parameters are modified in this conservative way. These parameters are then perturbed in BEPU calculations. At the end, a comparison is made between results obtained in the conservative calculation and the BEPU methodology, respectively. As a general conclusion the BEPU method has been successfully illustrated in a coupled 3-D kinetics and TH system. Also, the study is an effective test for the adequacy of nodalizations for the neutronic and TH utilized codes. The BEPU methodology gives more margins, which allows for higher operational flexibility of the plant. The results of the BEPU methodology help improve the plant economics while meeting the safety standards. As a conclusion, the BEPU methodology has been successfully tested in NK-TH calculations. Narrow margins between the upper and lower BEPU cases are a consequence of the few perturbed parameters chosen and the transient boundary conditions.