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Division Spotlight
Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
Meeting Spotlight
Nuclear and Emerging Technologies for Space (NETS 2023)
May 7–11, 2023
Idaho Falls, ID|Snake River Event Center
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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The blossoming of cooperation between the U.S. and Canada
The United States and Canadian nuclear industries used to be an example of how two independent teams of engineers facing an identical problem—making electricity from uranium—could come up with completely different answers. In the 1950s, Canada began designing a reactor with tubes, heavy water, and natural uranium, while in the U.S. it was big pots of light water and enriched uranium.
But 80 years later, there is a remarkable convergence. The North American push for a new generation of nuclear reactors, mostly small modular reactors (SMRs), is becoming binational, with U.S. and Canadian companies seeking markets and regulatory certification on both sides of the border and in many cases sourcing key components in the other country.
Zheng Fu, Joshua Pack, Fatih Aydogan
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 182 | Number 1 | January 2016 | Pages 119-134
Technical Paper | Special Issue on the RELAP5-3D Computer Code | doi.org/10.13182/NSE15-4
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In the study and design of a nuclear power plant, extensive system modeling is necessary to determine how the reactor will perform in any given situation, not only in the normal performance of the reactor, but also in transients including unanticipated transients without scram and hypothetical accidents. One type of nuclear power plant under study is the hybrid energy system, which uses nuclear power to generate both electricity and heat for facilities. Obviously, the second steam cycle in the nuclear power plant requires several design updates and experiments. Unfortunately, the current versions of the Reactor Excursion and Leak Analysis Program (RELAP) do not allow online data streams from experimental facilities to the computational model of the secondary steam loop. Therefore, this study develops a coupling between RELAP5 and Laboratory Virtual Instrument Engineering Workbench (LabVIEW) to model primary and secondary coolant loops. In this way, the LabVIEW model can easily be connected to an experimental apparatus to provide an online data stream and the online transient behavior of an entire nuclear power plant system. This study shows two different coupling approaches and makes qualitative and quantitative comparisons between these approaches.
This paper demonstrates the results of different couplings between the primary and secondary systems of a typical pressurized water reactor (PWR). The primary loop model is a four-loop PWR. The model has been executed with steady state and transients (in this case, a loss-of-coolant accident). The results of both coupling methods have been compared with the typical RELAP5 results.
