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Materials Science & Technology
The objectives of MSTD are: promote the advancement of materials science in Nuclear Science Technology; support the multidisciplines which constitute it; encourage research by providing a forum for the presentation, exchange, and documentation of relevant information; promote the interaction and communication among its members; and recognize and reward its members for significant contributions to the field of materials science in nuclear technology.
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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
Digital control system installed at China’s Linglong One
Earlier this month, the first digital control system was put in place at Linglong One, a small modular reactor demonstration project being built at the Changjiang nuclear power plant in Hainan Province. This is the world’s first land-based commercial SMR and is controlled by China National Nuclear Power Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC).
Roberto Ponciroli, Stefano Passerini, Richard B. Vilim
Nuclear Technology | Volume 191 | Number 2 | August 2015 | Pages 151-166
Technical Paper | Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT14-68
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The recent interest in the Small Modular Reactor (SMR) for its potential increased economic competitiveness has focused attention in part on reducing operational costs to offset those plant costs that do not benefit from the economies of scale of large traditional units. Plant operation and maintenance economics are significantly driven by plant availability, which can be enhanced by means of innovative control strategies by avoiding unnecessary plant or unit trips. In this context, an effective strategy for achieving fast runback of a sodium-cooled SMR has been developed. In this work, after having defined and modeled a suitable control strategy by adopting the Petri nets formalism, a Model-based Predictive Control regulator has been developed in order to reduce as promptly as possible the power level, without scramming the reactor (fast runback) and possibly limiting the control rod contribution. Such flexibility could lead to significant savings in the operational costs of the reactor while also improving the system availability. The proposed procedure has been characterized by simulating the operational transients on both an oxide-fueled reactor and on a metal-fueled reactor, comparing the responses of the two different configurations and the respectively needed control rod contribution.