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Division Spotlight
Nuclear Installations Safety
Devoted specifically to the safety of nuclear installations and the health and safety of the public, this division seeks a better understanding of the role of safety in the design, construction and operation of nuclear installation facilities. The division also promotes engineering and scientific technology advancement associated with the safety of such facilities.
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
Vogtle-3 shuts down for valve issue
One of the new Vogtle units in Georgia was shut down unexpectedly on Monday last week for a valve issue that has since been investigated and repaired. According to multiple local news outlets, Georgia Power reported on July 17 that Unit 3 was back in service.
Southern Company spokesperson Jacob Hawkins confirmed that Vogtle-3 went off line at 9:25 p.m. local time on July 8 “due to lowering water levels in the steam generators caused by a valve issue on one of the three main feedwater pumps.”
Chang H. Oh, J. Han, R. Barner, E. S. Kim, S. Sherman
Nuclear Technology | Volume 166 | Number 1 | April 2009 | Pages 113-120
Technical Note | Nuclear Plant Operations and Control | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A6973
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The U.S. Department of Energy and Idaho National Laboratory are developing a next-generation nuclear plant, very high temperature gas-cooled reactor (VHTR) to serve as a demonstration of state-of-the-art nuclear technology. The purpose of the demonstration is twofold: (a) efficient low-cost energy generation and (b) hydrogen production. While hydrogen production and advanced energy cycles are still in the early stages of development, research toward coupling VHTR, electrical generation, and hydrogen production is under way.This technical note includes the coupling of a VHTR with a power conversion unit. One of the power conversion configurations in the coupled plant is a combined Brayton cycle and Rankine cycle. This configuration uses a mixture of helium and nitrogen that allows the use of modified gas-turbine technology, including the same design techniques, material, and testing facilities used for conventional air gas turbines, to be used for the VHTR electricity production application. Exhaust heat from the turbine is transferred to a heat exchanger where the transferred heat is used to generate steam for a Rankine cycle.The study was focused on the verification of the steam generator model and comparisons of results from HYSYS and RELAP5-3D. This technical note concludes that the overall results are in good agreement despite the differences in size of different flow regime lengths. The overall heat transfer behavior deviated within ~2.1%, and exit temperatures and temperature drops across the steam generator also show reasonable agreement with <5.1% difference between the two methods.