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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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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.
Jaques Reifman, Thomas Y. C. Wei
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 131 | Number 3 | March 1999 | Pages 329-347
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE99-A2038
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A novel first-principles-based diagnostic system called PRODIAG is proposed for on-line detection and identification of faulty components during incipient off-normal process conditions. The concepts of qualitative physics reasoning and function-oriented diagnostics are employed in the design of PRODIAG and result in two unique capabilities not found in other plant-level diagnostic systems. First, PRODIAG is fully portable as it requires only modification of the input files containing the appropriate process schematics information to be able to diagnose single-component failures in different processes/plants. Second, PRODIAG detects unanticipated faults. Hence, it does not require the prespecification and formulation of rules to cover every conceivable fault scenario, and unlike traditional approaches, it is not likely to misdiagnose unforeseen events. PRODIAG's approach is to map process symptoms into component faults through a three-step mapping procedure with a knowledge base containing three distinct types of information: qualitative macroscopic balance equation rules, functional classification of process components, and the process piping and instrumentation diagram. The concepts introduced in the proposed diagnostic system are described, and an illustrative example shows how they are used in plant-level diagnostics.