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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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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Sep 2025
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Nuclear Science and Engineering
October 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Optimizing nuclear plant outages: Data analytics tools and methods for enhancing resilience and efficiency
Nuclear power plant refueling outages are among the most complex phases in a plant’s operational cycle.1 During these outages, tens of thousands of activities, including maintenance and surveillance, are conducted simultaneously within a short timeframe. Typically lasting three to four weeks, these operations involve large crews of contractors with diverse skill sets performing tasks ranging from testing and surveillance to maintenance. Outages may extend longer if major backfitting or modernization projects are planned. Consequently, plant outages are expensive, incurring significant operational costs, such as contractor labor and equipment, as well as the loss of generation while the plant is off line. This can easily cost a plant operator more than $1 million a day. Therefore, there is a constant need to mitigate the economic impact on plants by reducing the frequency, duration, and risks associated with these outages.2,3
Technical Session|FCWMD
Wednesday, October 8, 2025|8:00–9:40AM CDT|Salon B
Session Chair:
Aylin Kucuk
Co-Chair:
Yixing Sung
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The U.S. Next Generation Fuels (NGF) Program: Unleashing Advanced Nuclear Fuels
8:00–8:25AM CDT
Daniel M. Wachs (INL)
Paper
The Use of Powder Injection Molding for the Fabrication of Oxygen-Sensitive Advanced Nuclear Fuels
8:25–8:50AM CDT
Deana Tsang (LANL), Adrien Terricabras (LANL), Antoine Claisse (Westinghouse Electric Co.), Joshua White (LANL)
Progress Toward Revolutionary Reactor Designs using Nature-Inspired Nuclear Fuel
8:50–9:15AM CDT
Nicolas E. Woolstenhulme (INL), Nicolas P. Martin (INL), Joshua Zelina (INL), Paul A. Ferney (INL), Austen D. Fradeneck (INL), Adam Zabriskie (INL), Mark H. Anderson (University of Wisconsin Madison), Brett Prussack (University of Wisconsin - Madison), Koroush Shirvan (MIT), Youyeon Choi (MIT), Jeffrey L. Reed (Framatome), Kai Tai (Framatome)
Experimental and Computational Studies on Thermal Hydraulics of Triply Periodic Minimal Surface Lattices as Nuclear Fuel
9:15–9:40AM CDT
Brett A. Prussack (University of Wisconsin - Madison), Erik Pagenkopf (University of Wisconsin - Madison), Silvino B. Prieto (INL), Austen Fradeneck (INL), Zander Ray (Oregon State University), Joshua Gess (Oregon State University), Tai Kai (Framatome), Jeffrey L. Reed (Framatome), Nicholas E. Woolstenhulme (INL), Gregory Nellis (University of Wisconsin - Madison), Mark H. Anderson (University of Wisconsin - Madison)
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