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Decommissioning & Environmental Sciences
The mission of the Decommissioning and Environmental Sciences (DES) Division is to promote the development and use of those skills and technologies associated with the use of nuclear energy and the optimal management and stewardship of the environment, sustainable development, decommissioning, remediation, reutilization, and long-term surveillance and maintenance of nuclear-related installations, and sites. The target audience for this effort is the membership of the Division, the Society, and the public at large.
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2024 ANS Winter Conference and Expo
November 17–21, 2024
Orlando, FL|Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld
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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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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.
Andrew T. Bopp, Weston M. Stacey
Nuclear Technology | Volume 200 | Number 3 | December 2017 | Pages 250-268
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2017.1374088
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A customized dynamic safety model is developed and used to analyze the safety characteristics of the Subcritical Advanced Burner Reactor (SABR), a fast transmutation reactor driven by a tokamak fusion neutron source. Loss-of-flow accidents (LOFAs), loss–of–heat sink accidents (LOHSAs), and loss-of-power accidents (LOPAs) are analyzed taking into account the effects of feedback mechanisms, control rod insertion, and terminating electrical power to the neutron source. The core avoids fuel melting and coolant boiling without corrective action for 50% (failure of one of two pumps) loss of heat sink (LOHSA) and loss of flow (LOFA). For 100% (failure of both pumps) LOFAs, LOHSAs, and LOPAs without corrective action, coolant boiling (1156 K)/fuel melting (1473 K) occur at about 25 s/36 s, 35 s/84 s, and 25 s/36 s, respectively, after pump failure unless corrective control action is taken before this time, in which case the core power can be reduced to the decay heat level by shutting off the plasma power source. The present passive heat removal system is not sufficient to remove the decay heat, and both fuel melting and coolant boiling ultimately occur in the 100% LOFAs and LOHSAs (failure of both pumps) in either the primary or secondary system indicating the need to provide other means for decay heat removal.