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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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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Powering the future: How the DOE is fueling nuclear fuel cycle research and development
As global interest in nuclear energy surges, the United States must remain at the forefront of research and development to ensure national energy security, advance nuclear technologies, and promote international cooperation on safety and nonproliferation. A crucial step in achieving this is analyzing how funding and resources are allocated to better understand how to direct future research and development. The Department of Energy has spearheaded this effort by funding hundreds of research projects across the country through the Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP). This initiative has empowered dozens of universities to collaborate toward a nuclear-friendly future.
Earl J. Schulz, John C. Lee
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 73 | Number 2 | February 1980 | Pages 140-152
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE80-A18694
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Time-optimal control of axial xenon oscillations in pressurized water reactors is investigated in the present study, properly accounting for operating constraints on the allowable axial offset (AO) band. The system equation describing the spatial xenon oscillations has been reformulated using a lambda mode expansion in a form that readily allows a physical interpretation of the state vector and the system equation. In particular, AO measurements can be used to define the entire system parameters completely. Previous optimal control studies have been limited to the case of controls to the origin in the xenon-iodine phase plane. Our present investigation indicates that time-optimal controls should, in general, involve bang-bang controls to a line segment in this phase plane, subject to a band constraint on allowable AO or available control strength. A suboptimal control strategy, which can be applied directly in actual operating conditions without the aid of on-line computers, is also proposed. Verification of the proposed time-optimal control strategies is performed through computer simulations of xenon-induced transients.