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Division Spotlight
Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
Meeting Spotlight
Conference on Nuclear Training and Education: A Biennial International Forum (CONTE 2025)
February 3–6, 2025
Amelia Island, FL|Omni Amelia Island Resort
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
Senate committee hears from energy secretary nominee Chris Wright
Wright
Chris Wright, president-elect Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Department of Energy, spent hours today fielding questions from members of the U.S. Senate’s committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
During the hearing, Wright—who’s spent most of his career in fossil fuels—made comments in support of nuclear energy and efforts to expand domestic generation in the near future. Asked what actions he would take as energy secretary to improve the development and deployment of SMRs, Wright said: “It’s a big challenge, and I’m new to government, so I can’t list off the five levers I can pull. But (I’ve been in discussions) about how to make it easier to research, to invest, to build things. The DOE has land at some of its facilities that can be helpful in this regard.”
Inhyung Kim, HyeonTae Kim, Yonghee Kim
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 194 | Number 1 | January 2020 | Pages 14-31
Technical Paper | 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.