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Division Spotlight
Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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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Fusion Science and Technology
February 2024
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Can hydrogen be the transportation fuel in an otherwise nuclear economy?
Let’s face it: The global economy should be powered primarily by nuclear power. And it probably will by the end of this century, with a still-significant assist from renewables and hydro. Once nuclear systems are dominant, the costs come down to where gas is now; and when carbon emissions are reduced to a small portion of their present state, it will become obvious that most other sources are only good in niche settings. I mean, why use small modular reactors to load-follow when they can just produce that power instead of buffering it?
Kenneth Ferguson
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 61 | Number 1 | January 2012 | Pages 407-410
Education, Economics, and Sustainability | Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems | doi.org/10.13182/FST12-A13454
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Information has been collected and evaluated regarding the status of asset management for nuclear power plants in the United States. The current condition if measured by plant capacity factors is fundamentally sound. On average a value around 90 % is stabilizing with the highest quartile being in the range of 95 %. Examples of motivations for continued enhancement and improvement of these solid plant capacity factors include: (1) organizational commitment to continuous improvement, (2) movement from a lower quartile of unit performance to a higher quartile as well as (3) avoidance of the pitfalls of complacency associated with excellence. An integrated approach to asset management will involve technical actions that are proper and properly timed, accomplished correctly, and carried out in a structured and repeatable manner.The evolution into this integrated approach should confront the feedback collected from utilities and elsewhere in the industry including observations such as:(a) Needing a better focus of maintenance expenditures on critical systems and components(b) Integration between engineering and work management(c) An interest in good, accurate assessments(d) Addressing if the “run to failure” category is being evaluated well and populated fairly(e) The challenge of maintenance resources as a precious commodity not to be wasted.Effort is underway to assess current conditions at nuclear power plants and the benefits that are hoped to be achieved from this systematic approach to asset management. Some examples of benefits for which this work approach can deliver results include plant capacity improvement, reduced investments in maintenance expenditures, enhanced confidence in technical evaluations, rapid turnaround of equipment condition assessments, central location of relevant plant information, improved knowledge transfer to new personnel, and reduced manpower burdens to perform related tasks. Challenges to success will include the recognition and need to a committed task approach to transition management of such a change including involvement of the work force in appreciating the value of this approach, user requirements, and effective training and training materials. Incorporation of an integrated approach is expected to be applicable to operating fleets as well as new reactors.The presentation will include a current status of the incorporation of integrated asset management at nuclear power plants in the US. For emerging interests in nuclear power generation, the maximum effectiveness and benefits for an integrated asset management attention are best achieved through leveraging approaches occurring elsewhere and apply this experience early in the planning and design process.