ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Sep 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
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
Steven J. Piet
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 10 | Number 1 | July 1986 | Pages 31-48
Technical Paper | Safety/Environmental Aspect | doi.org/10.13182/FST86-A24744
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The potential value of probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) tools to fusion safety and economic issues is discussed. The main results and implications of a systematic examination of these general issues via PRA tools are reported. It is concluded that PRA methodology, tools, and thinking are useful to fusion research in the process of further improving fusion concepts and ideas. The MARS and STARFIRE designs are examined for possible answers to questions posed by using PRA tools. Several general magnetic-fusion design insights result from the study, including the following: 1. possible fault interactions must be minimized by decoupling fault conditions 2. the reliability of the vacuum boundary appears vital to maximizing facility availability and minimizing safety risk 3. economic analyses appear to be incomplete without consideration of potential availability loss from forced outages. A modification to PRA formalism called the “fault interaction matrix” is introduced. The fault interaction matrix contains information concerning what initial fault condition could lead to another fault condition, with what frequency. Thus, the fault interaction matrix represents a way to present and measure the degree to which a designer has decoupled possible fault conditions in his design. Such decoupling is crucial to enhancing fusion safety and facility availability.