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Division Spotlight
Materials Science & Technology
The objectives of MSTD are: promote the advancement of materials science in Nuclear Science Technology; support the multidisciplines which constitute it; encourage research by providing a forum for the presentation, exchange, and documentation of relevant information; promote the interaction and communication among its members; and recognize and reward its members for significant contributions to the field of materials science in nuclear technology.
Meeting Spotlight
2025 ANS Annual Conference
June 15–18, 2025
Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott Downtown
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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Latest News
BREAKING NEWS: Trump issues executive orders to overhaul nuclear industry
The Trump administration issued four executive orders today aimed at boosting domestic nuclear deployment ahead of significant growth in projected energy demand in the coming decades.
During a live signing in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump called nuclear “a hot industry,” adding, “It’s a brilliant industry. [But] you’ve got to do it right. It’s become very safe and environmental.”
Amit Thakur, Umasankari Kannan
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 193 | Number 10 | October 2019 | Pages 1160-1171
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2019.1599607
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Evolutionary algorithms play an important role for solving various optimization problems related to fuel management in reactor physics like core loading pattern optimization (LPO) or refueling. In general, all algorithms make a sample of solution candidates and evaluate the fitness of all candidates, and then the candidates with better fitness value are used to generate the next sample of solution candidates. In optimization algorithms, internal parameters [like population size, weighting factor in estimation of distribution algorithm (EDA) and population size, cross-over rate, etc., in Genetic Algorithm (GA)] have a stiffness problem as the value of these parameters is fixed at the first generation and is not being changed subsequently. However, the flexibility of changing the value of even one internal parameter during the generations will make the algorithm more efficient. In this paper we propose that fuzzy logics can be used in an innovative way to eliminate the stiffness problem related to internal parameters in evolutionary algorithms. As a test case, EDA for initial core LPO of the advanced heavy water reactor is chosen, and the use of fuzzy logics has shown a significant improvement in the algorithm’s performance. The appropriate value of weighting factor α in EDA has been predicted using fuzzy logics in each generation, and this has resulted in efficiency improvement of the algorithm. The improved methodology is expected to give better performance with other optimization algorithms, such as the GA or Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm, etc.