ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
May 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2026
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
NRC proposes changes to its rules on nuclear materials
In response to Executive Order 14300, “Ordering the Reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,” the NRC is proposing sweeping changes to its rules governing the use of nuclear materials that are widely used in industry, medicine, and research. The changes would amend NRC regulations for the licensing of nuclear byproduct material, some source material, and some special nuclear material.
As published in the May 18 Federal Register, the NRC is seeking public comment on this proposed rule and draft interim guidance until July 2.
S. I. Chang, T. W. Kerlin
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 64 | Number 2 | October 1977 | Pages 673-683
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE77-A27399
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Large linear dynamic models for nuclear reactor systems are widely used for simulation and control system design. It is important to be able to verify these models and the parameters in them. Existing parameter identification techniques are very time consuming for use with large systems. In this study, identification is achieved by an optimization procedure that adjusts system parameters to minimize differences between experimental frequency responses and theoretical frequency responses obtained from the dynamic model. A new method that uses a partitioned martrix technique was developed. This technique constitutes a very efficient analysis algorithm for large models when implemented on the digital computer. The work included a study of methods for assessing the identifiability of parameters by fitting dynamic test data. The Fisher information matrix was found to be useful for this purpose. It was also found that the frequency dependency of the sensitivity function is important in determining identifiability. The measurements should include frequencies where the sensitivity to the parameter of interest is largest. Also, it was found that separate, unique identification of parameters with parallel curves of sensitivity versus frequency is impossible regardless of how large the magnitudes of the sensitivities are. The method was demonstrated in a test case. It used data (from the Oconee I pressurized water reactor) and a 29th-order model. The results demonstrated that the computational requirements are reasonable for large systems and that the procedure can identify parameters if all the necessary conditions are satisfied. In general, the work has provided a systematic method for parameter identification in systems described by large linear dynamic models.