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Division Spotlight
Decommissioning & Environmental Sciences
The mission of the Decommissioning and Environmental Sciences (DES) Division is to promote the development and use of those skills and technologies associated with the use of nuclear energy and the optimal management and stewardship of the environment, sustainable development, decommissioning, remediation, reutilization, and long-term surveillance and maintenance of nuclear-related installations, and sites. The target audience for this effort is the membership of the Division, the Society, and the public at large.
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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August 2024
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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.”
So Hun Yun, Young Do Koo, Man Gyun Na (Chosun Univ)
Proceedings | Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technolgies (NPIC&HMIT 2019) | Orlando, FL, February 9-14, 2019 | Pages 1746-1754
In the event of a severe accident in nuclear power plants (NPPs), an important issue is the hydrogen generation due to the oxidation of the fuel cladding at high temperatures inside the reactor as the coolant disappears and the core melts. During normal operation, the hydrogen concentration in containment should be kept below 4%. However, if the hydrogen concentration increases above 10% or more during a severe accident, explosive combustion reaction leading to detonation may occur and eventually it can lead to damage to the containment. Therefore, it is important to predict the hydrogen concentration in severe accidents. There have been several studies by researchers to predict the hydrogen concentration in containment by using many artificial-intelligence (AI) techniques such as fuzzy neural network (FNN) and cascaded fuzzy neural network (CFNN). This study suggests the prediction of hydrogen concentration in containment under severe accidents using a deep neural network (DNN) method. Since the severe accident data cannot be obtained from actual NPPs, we verified the proposed method based on simulation data acquired using the modular accident analysis program (MAAP) code. The DNN model shows excellent prediction performance when a variety of loss of coolant accident (LOCA) data is applied. The proposed DNN model allows operators to predict the exact hydrogen concentration in containment at the beginning of the accident. Prediction of this hydrogen concentration will help to ensure safety by reducing the risk of the hydrogen combustion and explosion in a containment.