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Division Spotlight
Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
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
NRC engineers share their expertise at the University of Puerto Rico
Robert Roche-Rivera and Marcos Rolón-Acevedo are licensed professional engineers who work at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. They are also alumni of the University of Puerto Rico–Mayagüez (UPRM) and have been sharing their knowledge and experience with students at their alma mater since last year, serving as adjunct professors in the university’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. During the 2023–2024 school year, they each taught two courses: Fundamentals of Nuclear Science and Engineering, and Nuclear Power Plant Engineering.
P. D. Vaswani, P. K. Tamboli, Debraj Chakraborty
Nuclear Technology | Volume 210 | Number 1 | January 2024 | Pages 126-136
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2023.2214662
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper considers an optimized full state feedback (FSF) optimal controller for bulk power control of a 700-MW(electric) pressurized heavy water reactor (PHWR) that minimizes the controller norm to reduce the effect of disturbances. Lyapunov’s linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) have been considered for stability of the model. For the closed loop, these inequalities, which become nonlinear in the unknowns, are converted to LMIs by a suitable variable substitution. The controller’s optimization is achieved by minimizing the upper bound of the state feedback vector’s norm. As a result of this optimization, the controller gain is reduced, which reduces the effect of the disturbance input to the system. We study the stability of the closed loop system and the nonlinear transient performance using the state feedback. We demonstrate that the proposed controller’s transient performance is superior to that of a nonoptimized controller when compared to a conventional proportional-derivative controller. The designed controller has a norm that is about five orders lower than that obtained without optimization while still providing acceptable transient performance.