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Division Spotlight
Nuclear Criticality Safety
NCSD provides communication among nuclear criticality safety professionals through the development of standards, the evolution of training methods and materials, the presentation of technical data and procedures, and the creation of specialty publications. In these ways, the division furthers the exchange of technical information on nuclear criticality safety with the ultimate goal of promoting the safe handling of fissionable materials outside reactors.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
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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Dragonfly, a Pu-fueled drone heading to Titan, gets key NASA approval
Curiosity landed on Mars sporting a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) in 2012, and a second NASA rover, Perseverance, landed in 2021. Both are still rolling across the red planet in the name of science. Another exploratory craft with a similar plutonium-238–fueled RTG but a very different mission—to fly between multiple test sites on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon—recently got one step closer to deployment.
On April 25, NASA and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) announced that the Dragonfly mission to Saturn’s icy moon passed its critical design review. “Passing this mission milestone means that Dragonfly’s mission design, fabrication, integration, and test plans are all approved, and the mission can now turn its attention to the construction of the spacecraft itself,” according to NASA.
Shih-Jen Wang, Shih-Hsiin Chang, Ling-Yao Chou
Nuclear Technology | Volume 113 | Number 3 | March 1996 | Pages 280-290
Technical Paper | Nuclear Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT96-A35208
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An anticipated transient without scram induced by main steam isolation valve closure (AMSIV) could subject a nuclear power plant to the most severe of accident conditions. The Chinshan plant analyzer contains a complete boiling water reactor system model and can be revised easily for the user’s purpose. These features make the Chinshan plant analyzer suitable for AMSIV analysis. The capability of the Chinshan plant analyzer to analyze an AMSIV is illustrated. An AMSIV is simulated, and the simulation results are similar to the results of other research. Furthermore, the AMSIV response of reducing reactor power by decreasing reactor coolant inventory is simulated, and the results of the simulation are similar to those of other research. During this transient, the reactor power is decreased. However, the margin to core uncovery is also decreased. In addition, a method of reducing the reactor power by increasing the feedwater temperature is studied. The mechanism of reducing the reactor power is associated with decreasing the inlet subcooling. Sensitivities of key parameters are also analyzed. A large negative void coefficient causes an undesirable large peak in the reactor power. A small recirculation pump moment of inertia decreases the reactor power.
