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
Koichi Maki
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 10 | Number 1 | July 1986 | Pages 70-77
Technical Paper | Plasma Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST86-A24747
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The possibility of burn control by hydrogen feeding was investigated for tokamak plasma under a self-sustained condition. When fusion power shifts higher than a target value, increases in hydrogen feed rate can lower the power by a reduction in ion temperature due to enhanced hydrogen density. Conversely, when the power shifts lower than the target, stopping hydrogen feeding and exhaust can increase the power through an increase in ion temperature due to reduced hydrogen density. Especially in the latter, in order to enlarge the recoverable magnitude of power shift, it is necessary to select a self-sustained condition having the highest hydrogen density. The results confirmed the possibility of burn control by hydrogen feeding.
