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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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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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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
A. Rene Raffray, Myron A. Hoffman
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 10 | Number 3 | November 1986 | Pages 1264-1269
Inertial Confinement Fusion Target and Reaction Chamber Technology | doi.org/10.13182/FST86-A24905
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This research relates to the multiple liquid-lithium-jet blanket concept for the HYLIFE inertial-confinement fusion (ICF) reactor. The fusion micro-explosion would result in part of the liquid lithium being propelled towards the vacuum chamber wall where the resulting impact would cause high peak stresses. In an attempt to reduce these peak stresses, it was proposed to set up an array of bars between the vacuum vessel first wall and the liquid jets so that part of the liquid momentum would be removed as the liquid passed through the bars. A series of small-scale scoping experiments were run to obtain a preliminary evaluation of the effectiveness of such rod arrays in removing momentum from impinging liquid slugs. The impact force of an unconfined cylindrical water jet on in-line and staggered rod arrays was measured. The results indicate that the fraction of momentum removed from liquid slugs could probably exceed 18% for a staggered rod arrangement in the HYLIFE reactor.