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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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Nuclear Science and Engineering
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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
Boro Malinovic, Mujid S. Kazimi
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 10 | Number 3 | November 1986 | Pages 1205-1210
Environment and Safety | doi.org/10.13182/FST86-A24894
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The response of liquid metal self-cooled fusion reactors to a loss of flow accident (LOFA) has been investigated. Coolant temperature rise through the blanket was determined for conditions where decay heat is removed solely by natural convection. It was found that lithium-lead (Li17-Pb83) coolant provides sufficient natural convection to remove decay heat in both tokamak and TMR designs with a reasonable temperature rise. With pure lithium coolant, however, decay heat removal by natural convection proves difficult without excessive temperature rise. A transient analysis reveals that there should be ample time to respond to a LOFA if the plasma is shut down promptly.
