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Going Nuclear: Notes from the officially unofficial book tour
I work in the analytical labs at one of Europe’s oldest and largest nuclear sites: Sellafield, in northwestern England. I spend my days at the fume hood front, pipette in one hand and radiation probe in the other (and dosimeter pinned to my chest, of course). Outside the lab, I have a second job: I moonlight as a writer and public speaker. My new popular science book—Going Nuclear: How the Atom Will Save the World—came out last summer, and it feels like my life has been running at full power ever since.
Ryan J. Hoover, Kenji Shimada
Nuclear Technology | Volume 210 | Number 11 | November 2024 | Pages 2204-2214
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2024.2312022
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Transient mitigation for nuclear power plants is essential for safe operation. The fourth industrial revolution brings with it the potential for data-based predictive maintenance and identifying remaining time of life for degrading components. An improvement to predictive maintenance would be to address continued operation with faulty components between the time of identification and eventual replacement. The ability to perform data analysis and contemporary digital control systems allows for data-driven control system actions. A methodology is developed herein to train a neural network that can map desired system performance and current plant component capability to control system settings. Simulations of plant transients were recorded and used to train a neural network. This neural network was tested with different target performance goals. The results show that the trained neural network recommended settings that affected the control system response so as to meet the target performance goals.