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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
W.J. Holtslander, R.E. Johnson, F.B. Gravelle, C.M. Shultz
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 10 | Number 3 | November 1986 | Pages 1340-1344
Tritium Technology | doi.org/10.13182/FST86-A24916
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Small tritium-burning experimental tokamaks will require some means of handling the fuel after a burn. This paper presents an experimental evaluation of a scheme that would provide for the removal of the impurities produced in the fuel during the burn and delivery of the purified fuel for a subsequent burn in the machine. The fuel, simulated in this work by a hydrogen-impurity mixture, is taken from the machine, diluted to 25% with helium and passed through a uranium metal bed at 25°C, where the hydrogen is trapped reversibly and several of the impurities are irreversibly absorbed. The results showed complete removal of O2, CO, CO2, H2O, and N2O at room temperature. Removal of CH4 and NH3 required the uranium to be heated to approximately 400°C. At 400°C the hydrogen is released from the uranium metal, so the cleanup scheme requires circulation of the gas through two uranium beds, one at room temperature and one at near 400°C. When all the impurities are reacted the low temperature uranium bed is heated to 400°C to release the hydrogen back into the system in preparation for reinjection into the machine. An apparatus, simulating a small fusion fuel cleanup system, was built and demonstrated. In this apparatus two alternative flow paths for the cleanup of the gas, were provided. The first was the two uranium bed approach described above, in the second, the hot uranium bed is replaced with a SAES getter for decomposition of the CH4 and NH3.
