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DOE selects first companies for nuclear launch pad
The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy and the National Reactor Innovation Center have announced their first selections for the Nuclear Energy Launch Pad: three companies developing microreactors and one developing fuel supply.
The four companies—Deployable Energy, General Matter, NuCube Energy, and Radiant Industries—were selected from the initial pool of Reactor Pilot Program and Fuel Line Pilot Program applicants, the two precursor programs to the launch pad.
Humberto E. Garcia, Richard B. Vilim, Eric M. Dean
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 125 | Number 3 | March 1997 | Pages 337-347
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE97-A24279
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The implementation of a computer-based controller for regulating reactor inlet temperature (RIT) in a pool-type power plant is described. The mathematical description of the controller is given in a companion paper. The elements of the control system are organized in a master-follower hierarchical architecture that takes advantage of existing in-plant hardware and software to minimize the need for plant modifications. Low-level control algorithms are executed on existing local digital controllers (followers) with the high-level algorithms executed on a new plant supervisory computer (master). A distributed computing strategy provides integration of the existing and additional computer platforms. The control system operates by having the master controller first estimate the secondary sodium flow needed to achieve a given RIT. The estimated flow is then used as a setpoint by the follower controller to regulate sodium flow using a motor-generator pump set. The control system has been implemented in a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) setup and qualified for operation in the Experimental Breeder Reactor II at Argonne National Laboratory. The HIL results are provided.