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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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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
Steven J. Piet
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 10 | Number 1 | July 1986 | Pages 7-30
Technical Paper | Safety/Environmental Aspect | doi.org/10.13182/FST86-A24743
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Achieving inherently safe fusion facilities and conceptual designs is a challenge to the fusion community. Success should provide fusion with important competitive advantages versus other energy technologies. Inherent safety should mean a facility designed with passive safety features such that the public is protected from any acute fatalities under all credible accidental circumstances. A key aspect to inherent safety is demonstrability — the ability to prove that a design is as safe as claimed. Three complementary approaches to achieving inherent safety are examined: toxin inventory reduction, energy source reduction, and design fault tolerance. Four levels of assurance are defined, associated with uncertainty in the words “credible” and “demonstrable.” Sound reasons exist for believing that inherent safety is achievable for fusion. The concept of inherent safety puts a modest upper bound on all accident consequences; it should be considered a part of the collection of safety and environmental issues, which also include lower consequence accidents, waste management, and effluent control.