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Division Spotlight
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
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
Latest News
PPPL study points to better fusion plasma control
The combination of two previously known methods for managing plasma conditions can result in enhanced control of plasma in a fusion reactor, according to a simulation performed by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.
Shifa Wu, Jiashuang Wan, Zhi Chen, Longtao Liao, Kai Xiao, Pengfei Wang
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 197 | Number 4 | April 2023 | Pages 660-675
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2022.2123204
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
To improve the economy and safety of small pressurized water reactors (SPWRs) with flexible operating characteristics, the reactor power control system should process excellent robustness to provide satisfactory control performances at different operating conditions. This paper proposes four control strategies for reactor power control of SPWRs based on the linear quadratic Gaussian with loop transfer recovery (LQG/LTR) robust control method, including the single-loop reactor power feedback control (RPFC), single-loop average temperature feedback control, dual-loop feedback control, and modified dual-loop feedback control (MDFC) strategies. The corresponding LQG/LTR controllers in the reactor power control system of a SPWR were designed to assess the performance of the four control strategies. The simulation results show that the LQG/LTR controller with the MDFC strategy can provide good control performances for both reactor power and average coolant temperature among the four control strategies while the controller-based single-loop feedback control shows poor control of the reactor power or average coolant temperature. Meanwhile, compared with the existing conventional reactor power control system, the designed robust control system employing the MDFC strategy can provide better control performance for the reactor power and average coolant temperature in full-power operation of 100% to 90% rated power and low-power operation of 25% to 35% rated power with the differential control rod worth taken as 4 pcm/step and 24 pcm/step, indicating its effectiveness and superiority.