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Division Spotlight
Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
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.”
Antonio Di Buono, Peter R. Green, Barry Lennox (Univ of Manchester), Neil Cockbain (NNL), Xavier Poteau (Sellafield Ltd)
Proceedings | Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technolgies (NPIC&HMIT 2019) | Orlando, FL, February 9-14, 2019 | Pages 1284-1293
The use of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) is now widespread, with well-documented deployments across a diverse range of sectors including aerospace, agri-science and consumer electronics. In the nuclear industry there have been successful deployments of WSN technologies for instrumentation and control, however, there are significant challenges that need to be addressed before wireless sensing can be used in some nuclear decommissioning extreme environments. This paper presents a concept design for a wireless sensor network capable of delivering wireless remote sensing and control capability through the reinforced concrete structures used in nuclear processing environments. The paper describes the deployment challenges, and how these are being addressed by the design methodology. These challenges include: difficult to reach areas with limited or no power sources; radiation tolerance of sensors and communication systems and delivery of secure and reliable communication in spaces exhibiting highly variable wireless propagation conditions. Following the description of the design methodology, the paper focuses on recent work to characterise the wireless propagation through the reinforced concrete structures found in many decommissioning environments. Preliminary Radio Frequency (RF) propagation measurements undertaken in two buildings on the Sellafield site are presented. The paper demonstrates how analysis of these results enables potential transmission frequencies to be identified and the power budget of the wireless sensor nodes to be modelled.