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 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 15–18, 2026
Phoenix, AZ|Arizona Grand Resort & Spa
Latest Magazine Issues
Aug 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
October 2026
Nuclear Technology
September 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
August 2026
Latest News
What’s reshaping nuclear licensing and compliance today?
Mark Reidmeyer
It is the convergence of urgency, innovation, and modernization that is reshaping nuclear licensing and compliance today.
For decades, nuclear licensing operated in a relatively stable environment built around large light water reactors, predictable review cycles, and well-established regulatory pathways. Today, that model is evolving rapidly. Advanced reactors, AI-enabled tools, digital engineering platforms, grid reliability concerns, and aggressive decarbonization goals are all pushing the industry—and regulators—to move faster and think differently.
M. A. Schultz, Wayne F. Eckley
Nuclear Technology | Volume 10 | Number 3 | March 1971 | Pages 380-390
Technical Paper | Education | doi.org/10.13182/NT71-A30971
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In teaching the theory and operation of a pressurized water reactor (PWR), a method is developed which makes use of an analog computer primary-loop simulation; however, the secondary loop consists of a real steam turbine-generator set. The analog is fitted with a reactor kinetics network and a transport delay unit with memory capacitors. Potentiometer settings at the analog originate at the real turbine as temperatures and pressures of the saturated steam at. 215 psia. Students consult steam tables, Mollier charts, etc. to obtain correct values for points at the interface, secondary side of the heat exchanger. The “pinch point” concept of heat transfer is used to transfer data across the heat exchanger to the primary loop. The proper potentiometer settings at the analog result from this pinch point and the design criteria for half-load or full-load operating condition existing at the turbine. Two dynamic variations are made from the “steady-statec” half-load run. One of these is a “sudden” throttle opening at the turbine; the other is a “step” reactivity insertion made at the reactor (analog). Students make adjustments for the revised settings in both loops. The educational benefits resulting from this “50% simulate + 50% real turbine” method of instruction have proved to be very meaningful to students as well as gratifying to the instructor.