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Aerospace Nuclear Science & Technology
Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
Meeting Spotlight
2021 ANS Virtual Annual Meeting
June 14–16, 2021
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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Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2021
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April 2021
Latest News
The consequences of closure: The local cost of shutting down a nuclear power plant
When on May 7, 2013, the Kewaunee nuclear power plant in rural Wisconsin was shut down, it took with it more than 600 full-time jobs and more than $70 million in lost wages, not including temporary employment from refueling and maintenance outages. Taking into account indirect business-to-business activity, the total economic impact of the closure of the single-unit pressurized water reactor was estimated to be more than $630 million to the surrounding three-county area.
Inhyung Kim, HyeonTae Kim, Yonghee Kim
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 194 | Number 1 | January 2020 | Pages 14-31
Technical Paper | dx.doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2019.1654815
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper presents a systematic way to truncate the high-fidelity Monte Carlo (MC) solution to reduce the computational cost without compromising the essential reliability of the solution. Based on the fine-mesh finite difference (FMFD) acceleration for the MC analysis, the deterministic truncation of the Monte Carlo (DTMC) solution method is developed and investigated for a systematic approximation to the MC solution of the reactor eigenvalue problem. This deterministic solution is used for the acceleration of the MC simulation as well as the solution prediction itself. The concept, motivations, and challenges of the DTMC method are described in detail, and theoretical backgrounds of the FMFD method are discussed. In addition, an unbiased ratio estimator for more accurate FMFD parameter generation and a modified particle ramp-up method for the determination of optimal generation size in the MC simulation are also introduced and explained. Both the C5G7 benchmark and a small modular reactor (SMR) core are analyzed to characterize the numerical performance of the DTMC method in this work. Convergence behavior of the fission source distribution is examined, and reactor parameters such as the multiplication factor and three-dimensional pin power distribution are estimated and compared to the reference solution. The stochastic features of the DTMC solutions are also discussed in terms of the apparent and real standard deviations. For the pin power distribution, the root-mean-square error and relative error for the reactor core are also evaluated and compared. The computing time and figure of merit are compared for each method.
