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2024 ANS Annual Conference
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Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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The Nuclear Family: Empowering parents and caregivers
The Diversity and Inclusion in ANS Committee is hosting a webinar today to celebrate the contributions of parents in the nuclear industry while fostering diversity and inclusion within the community.
Register now: The webinar, from 1:00-2:00 pm ET, will highlight how the nuclear industry supports caregivers, new parents, and new mothers, and will focus on life transitions and parental responsibilities.
F. D’Auria
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 197 | Number 5 | May 2023 | Pages 987-999
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2023.2178874
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The development of the AP-1000 design and of its precursor the AP-600 started in the aftermath of the Chernobyl event (1986) when the need came from the scientific and technological community for a resilient system against deliberate threats by humans. The “passive system” design concept became relevant. The first AP-1000 entered into operation around 3 decades after that event. This paper discusses the issue of how much the progress in nuclear science and technology since the end of the 1980s has affected the AP-1000 design. Five interconnected areas are identified: (1) reliability of passive systems, (2) scaling and uncertainty, (3) coupling between three-dimensional neutron physics and thermal hydraulics, (4) consideration of large-break loss-of-coolant accidents, and (5) simulation of instrumentation and control systems. All these areas are relevant for the AP-1000 and standard pressurized water reactors; however, the areas (1) and (2) have specific applicability for the AP-1000 and constitute the main concerns of this paper. The conclusion from qualitative investigation is that the safety demonstration of the AP-1000 did not take full benefit from progress in these areas, namely, inadequacies characterize the scaling database and the processes for determining the reliability of thermal-hydraulic passive systems did not receive proper attention.