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Division Spotlight
Nuclear Criticality Safety
NCSD provides communication among nuclear criticality safety professionals through the development of standards, the evolution of training methods and materials, the presentation of technical data and procedures, and the creation of specialty publications. In these ways, the division furthers the exchange of technical information on nuclear criticality safety with the ultimate goal of promoting the safe handling of fissionable materials outside reactors.
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.”
John Avis (Geofirma Eng), Erik Kremer (NWMO)
Proceedings | 16th International High-Level Radioactive Waste Management Conference (IHLRWM 2017) | Charlotte, NC, April 9-13, 2017 | Pages 246-254
The Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) is responsible for the implementation of Adaptive Phased Management, the federally-approved plan for the safe long-term management of Canada’s used nuclear fuel. Under this plan, used nuclear fuel will ultimately be placed within a deep geological repository in a suitable host rock formation.
The NWMO recently completed a study illustrating the postclosure safety of a hypothetical used fuel repository in a crystalline host formation. The Base Case scenario assumes that undetected defects in used fuel containers lead to the release of radionuclides to the geosphere. The primary pathway to the biosphere is through a water supply well. To be conservative, the scenario assumes that the well and the defective containers are located such that radionuclide transport to the well is maximized.
In a complex faulted flow system, the most consequential locations for used fuel container failures and the water supply well are not obvious. This paper presents a robust approach to identifying the most consequential well-source location pairs. The approach relies on a mixture of numerical methods and the availability of cluster-computing capabilities. A refined “brute-force” approach simulates total repository failure with complete but coarse spatial coverage of all possible well locations. Spatially segregated groups of possible high-consequence well locations are extracted and associated potential high-consequence container failure locations determined. Well and container locations are refined and permutations evaluated until maximum well transport is determined within the resolution of the numeric grid.