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Division Spotlight
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.
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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Latest News
WIPP improves utility shaft safety, begins infrastructure project
Harrison Western Shaft Sinkers (HWSS), the company drilling a new utility shaft at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, has retained a safety culture expert following a near-miss accident in the shaft late last year. The safety expert will conduct monthly facilitated discussions with crews working on the shaft to reinforce expectations for identifying concerns regarding unsafe circumstances, according to a recent report by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB).
D. Mandelli, C. Smith, T. Riley, J. Nielsen, A. Alfonsi, J. Cogliati, C. Rabiti, J. Schroeder
Nuclear Technology | Volume 193 | Number 1 | January 2016 | Pages 161-174
Technical Paper | Special Issue on the RELAP5-3D Computer Code | doi.org/10.13182/NT14-142
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The existing fleet of nuclear power plants is in the process of having its lifetime extended and having the power generated from these plants increased via power uprates and improved operations. In order to evaluate the impact of these factors on the safety of the plant, the Risk-Informed Safety Margin Characterization (RISMC) pathway aims to provide insights to decision makers through a series of simulations of the plant dynamics for different initial conditions and accident scenarios. This paper presents a case study in order to show the capabilities of the RISMC methodology to assess the impact of power uprate of a boiling water reactor system during a station blackout accident scenario. We employ a system simulator code, RELAP5-3D, coupled with RAVEN, which performs the stochastic analysis. Our analysis is performed by (a) sampling values from a set of parameters from the uncertainty space of interest, (b) simulating the system behavior for that specific set of parameter values, and (c) analyzing the outcomes from the set of simulation runs.