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Division Spotlight
Isotopes & Radiation
Members are devoted to applying nuclear science and engineering technologies involving isotopes, radiation applications, and associated equipment in scientific research, development, and industrial processes. Their interests lie primarily in education, industrial uses, biology, medicine, and health physics. Division committees include Analytical Applications of Isotopes and Radiation, Biology and Medicine, Radiation Applications, Radiation Sources and Detection, and Thermal Power Sources.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Winter Conference and Expo
November 17–21, 2024
Orlando, FL|Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld
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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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.
Anthony W. LaPorta
Nuclear Technology | Volume 205 | Number 10 | October 2019 | Pages 1290-1301
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2019.1565471
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Transient Reactor Test (TREAT) facility was constructed in 1958 and became operational in 1959. The TREAT reactor is an air-cooled test reactor that can be operated in multiple modes: up to 20 GW for short-duration “burst” pulses (approximately 100 to 200 ms) producing an intense neutron pulse; lower power (megawatt range)–shaped transients intended to simulate fuel heating prior to accident conditions being imposed; or in a low power mode of up to 120 kW for experiment preconditioning or neutron radiography. TREAT operated from 1959 through 1994 when it was put into a standby condition. With the accident at Fukashima-Daiichi that resulted in extensive fuel failure, the U.S. Department of Energy selected TREAT for restart and irradiation of new accident-tolerant fuel designs for U.S. commercial nuclear plants. This paper discusses the basic process that was used to perform the initial criticality following the TREAT extended shutdown operation from 1994 to 2017.