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 Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
Mar 2026
Jul 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
March 2026
Nuclear Technology
February 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
April 2026
Latest News
NRC approves TerraPower construction permit
Today, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced that it has approved TerraPower’s construction permit application for Kemmerer Unit 1, the company’s first deployment of Natrium, its flagship sodium fast reactor.
This approval is a significant milestone on three fronts. For TerraPower, it represents another step forward in demonstrating its technology. For the Department of Energy, it reflects progress (despite delays) for the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP). For the NRC, it is the first approval granted to a commercial reactor in nearly a decade—and the first approval of a commercial non–light water reactor in more than 40 years.
Attila Rácz
Nuclear Technology | Volume 104 | Number 1 | October 1993 | Pages 128-146
Technical Paper | Reactor Control | doi.org/10.13182/NT93-A34875
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
During the last two decades, Kalman filter-based process monitoring techniques have been rediscovered and widely applied in different areas of control and signal validation. When the physical model of the underlying system is known, the Kalman filter is sensitive enough to indicate small, unexpected changes either in the plant or in the measurement models. Although the innovation process that is generated by Kalman filters contains all the necessary statistical information for detecting certain malfunctions, performance degradation, or off-normal operation conditions, skillful hypothesis testing methods are needed for proper interpretation of the innovation’s behavior. The classical binary sequential probability ratio test (SPRT’), developed by Wald, is an optimal tool to judge between two concurring hypotheses. For more than two alternatives, the multiple-hypothesis testing method, the so-called M-ary SPRT, is recommended. In many cases, the situation cannot be represented as simply as a binary problem, however, and the M-ary scheme would be an overcomplication. For an illustration, consider leakage detection when the exact amount of the loss is not of interest. In such a case, the problem can be treated by a properly chosen binary test, and Wald’s classical SPRT framework can be applied. Thus, any binary SPRT and computer code can be used without any modification.