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 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
Latest Magazine Issues
Jul 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
September 2026
Nuclear Technology
August 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
The human factor in licensing and operating the next generation of nuclear plants
As human factors specialists working at the intersection of human performance and nuclear operations, we are witnessing one of the nuclear sector’s most significant transitions in decades. The emergence of small modular reactors, microreactors, and other advanced designs is reshaping the industry’s landscape. Digital instrumentation and controls, passive safety systems, and increased automation are creating opportunities for greater safety margins and more flexible operation. These same features also fundamentally redefine what it means to “operate” a nuclear plant. Interactions among human roles, automation, and passive systems shape how people maintain awareness, exercise judgment, and intervene when necessary. These developments affect both operational realities and the regulatory foundations on which nuclear safety is built.
Ihor Pasichnyk, Markus Klein, Kiril Velkov, Winfried Zwermann, Andreas Pautz
Nuclear Technology | Volume 183 | Number 3 | September 2013 | Pages 464-472
Technical Paper | Hydraulic Reactor Safety / Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT183-464
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The effects of nuclear data covariance on the rod ejection transient of the pressurized water reactor mixed-oxide/UO2 core benchmark sponsored by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development/Nuclear Energy Agency and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission are investigated. For this purpose the uncertainty and sensitivity software package XSUSA developed at Gesellschaft für Anlagen- und Reaktorsicherheit is applied to propagate uncertainties in nuclear data libraries to the transient calculations. A statistically representative set of transient calculations is analyzed, and both integral and local output quantities are compared with the benchmark results of different participants. It is shown that the uncertainties in nuclear data play a crucial role in the interpretation of the simulation results. The work is a step forward in establishing a methodology that combines best-estimate calculation with performing uncertainty analysis for coupled full-core calculations.