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Young Members Group
The Young Members Group works to encourage and enable all young professional members to be actively involved in the efforts and endeavors of the Society at all levels (Professional Divisions, ANS Governance, Local Sections, etc.) as they transition from the role of a student to the role of a professional. It sponsors non-technical workshops and meetings that provide professional development and networking opportunities for young professionals, collaborates with other Divisions and Groups in developing technical and non-technical content for topical and national meetings, encourages its members to participate in the activities of the Groups and Divisions that are closely related to their professional interests as well as in their local sections, introduces young members to the rules and governance structure of the Society, and nominates young professionals for awards and leadership opportunities available to members.
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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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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?
Jianqing Ye, Paul J. Turinsky
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 129 | Number 2 | June 1998 | Pages 97-123
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE98-A1967
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The computational capability of automatically determining the optimal control strategies for pressurized water reactor core maneuvering, in terms of an operating strategy generator (OSG), has been developed. The OSG was developed for use with an on-line, three-dimensional core simulator and applies optimal control theory. To reduce computer run time, the optimization engine employs a one-dimensional axial core model. A method has been developed for generating a consistent one-dimensional axial core model from the three-dimensional on-line core simulator based on the consistent collapse methodology. From the one-dimensional, model-based, optimal control strategy, the associated axial offset versus time is obtained. These axial offsets are subsequently used in the three-dimensional simulator to determine with enhanced accuracy the associated control rod insertions and boration/dilution operations versus time.Various operational objectives are defined as the performance index to be minimized. The axial flux difference limit constraint and the maximum boration/dilution limit constraint are treated as penalty functions added to the performance index. The control rod insertion/withdraw limit constraint is treated as a hard constraint on the control variable. The optimality condition is obtained by applying Pontryagin's maximum principle for constrained optimization. The resulting nonlinear, two-point boundary-value problem is solved via an iterative approach based on the first-order gradient method.Several sample OSG maneuvering problems have been studied to assess the robustness and efficiency of the optimization search and nonlinear iterations. The algorithm exhibited excellent control of the axial power distribution during maneuvering. For the cases of minimizing the boron system duty during maneuvering, the optimal strategies produced reduced volumes of primary water generated by dilution and boration operations of 12% for beginning-of-cycle cases and 10% for end-of-cycle cases over the volumes generated using heuristic rules.