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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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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
K. Oishi, Y. Ikeda, C. Konno, H. Maekawa, T. Nakamura
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 10 | Number 3 | November 1986 | Pages 579-584
Fusion Nucleonics Experiments | Proceedings of the Seveth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (Reno, Nevada, June 15–19, 1986) | doi.org/10.13182/FST86-A24806
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Irradiation of concrete aggregates by 14 MeV neutrons was performed to investigate the activation characteristics of concrete, and to verify the calculation code system THIDA using the FNS facility. From the result it was proven that 42K, 24Na, 43K, 48Sc, 47Ca, 46Sc, and 54Mn, in half life order, make an important contribution to the total activity. In addition, a comparison between experiment and calculation was made. For 24Na and 54Mn, whose cross sections were well estimated, good agreement between experiment and calculation was obtained, which proved the validity of the calculational code. For reaction rates caused by calcium and titanium isotopes, however, calculational results that differed from experimental ones between −20 % to +40 % were obtained. This inconsistency was caused by the uncertainty of the cross section around 14 MeV, because the incident neutron energy was almost 14 MeV. Cross section measurements around 14 MeV of these reactions were performed systematically. Since all samples, except 48Ca, were separated isotopes and were irradiated in the same irradiation field, highly precise data with small relative error could be obtained. Consequently, calculations were performed again using measured cross section values, and then agreement between experiment and calculation was improved with ± 10 %.
