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Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
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2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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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
Commercial nuclear innovation "new space" age
In early 2006, a start-up company launched a small rocket from a tiny island in the Pacific. It exploded, showering the island with debris. A year later, a second launch attempt sent a rocket to space but failed to make orbit, burning up in the atmosphere. Another year brought a third attempt—and a third failure. The following month, in September 2008, the company used the last of its funds to launch a fourth rocket. It reached orbit, making history as the first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to do so.
Chaung Lin, Jiing-Iuan Yang, Kuan-Jan Lin, Zheng-De Wang
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 129 | Number 1 | May 1998 | Pages 61-71
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE98-A1963
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A computer program based on the simple tabu search has been developed to search for pressurized water reactor loading patterns (LPs). The tabu search is a heuristic procedure for solving optimization problems. To save computer time, a design target was defined, which is the value of the nuclear enthalpy rise hot-channel factor FH at each fuel assembly (FA) position for zero xenon concentration and zero exposure condition. When the values of FH of a trial LP satisfy the design target, this LP may meet the design limit at each exposure checkpoint for all rods-out and D-bank half-inserted conditions, which is the design requirement. The objective function was defined to search for an LP whose FH is smaller than the design target, i.e., a feasible LP. An initial LP is properly generated by using the heuristic rules. Then the LP is rearranged by exchanging FAs or rotating the FA, which is carried out by employing the simple tabu search. The heuristic rules were incorporated into the tabu search to generate the candidate moves so that the search was efficient. The program was demonstrated by successfully generating LPs for the Maanshan nuclear power plant in Taiwan.