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Radiation Protection & Shielding
The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
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2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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Securing the advanced reactor fleet
Physical protection accounts for a significant portion of a nuclear power plant’s operational costs. As the U.S. moves toward smaller and safer advanced reactors, similar protection strategies could prove cost prohibitive. For tomorrow’s small modular reactors and microreactors, security costs must remain appropriate to the size of the reactor for economical operation.
Chaung Lin, Jiing-Iuan Yang, Kuan-Jan Lin, Zheng-De Wang
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 129 | Number 1 | May 1998 | Pages 61-71
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE98-A1963
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A computer program based on the simple tabu search has been developed to search for pressurized water reactor loading patterns (LPs). The tabu search is a heuristic procedure for solving optimization problems. To save computer time, a design target was defined, which is the value of the nuclear enthalpy rise hot-channel factor FH at each fuel assembly (FA) position for zero xenon concentration and zero exposure condition. When the values of FH of a trial LP satisfy the design target, this LP may meet the design limit at each exposure checkpoint for all rods-out and D-bank half-inserted conditions, which is the design requirement. The objective function was defined to search for an LP whose FH is smaller than the design target, i.e., a feasible LP. An initial LP is properly generated by using the heuristic rules. Then the LP is rearranged by exchanging FAs or rotating the FA, which is carried out by employing the simple tabu search. The heuristic rules were incorporated into the tabu search to generate the candidate moves so that the search was efficient. The program was demonstrated by successfully generating LPs for the Maanshan nuclear power plant in Taiwan.