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Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
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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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Securing the advanced reactor fleet
Physical protection accounts for a significant portion of a nuclear power plant’s operational costs. As the U.S. moves toward smaller and safer advanced reactors, similar protection strategies could prove cost prohibitive. For tomorrow’s small modular reactors and microreactors, security costs must remain appropriate to the size of the reactor for economical operation.
Harshavardhan Kadvekar, Sana Khan, Sangeetha Prasanna Ram, Jayalekshmi Nair, S. Ganesan
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 183 | Number 3 | July 2016 | Pages 356-370
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE15-103
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In a majority of the cases, error propagation studies in nuclear science and engineering use the sandwich formula, which is strictly applicable when the probability density function of the random input quantities (e.g., the basic cross-section data) are determined completely by the mean and covariances. The use of the sandwich formula, which is also referred to in the literature as traditional first-order sensitivity analysis or adjoint-based sensitivity and uncertainty analysis, requires the assumption of linearity assumption and relatively small errors. For the first time, this paper examines the application of unscented transformation (UT) technique, which is used in control and reliability engineering, to error propagation in the nuclear field for nonlinear cases. Using different examples, this paper shows that this deterministic method of UT produces better results compared to the conventional sandwich formula for error propagation. An example on error propagation given in the literature is revisited, and a calculation of the efficiency of a gamma-ray detector is also presented for illustrative purposes using the UT method.