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.
Division Spotlight
Isotopes & Radiation
Members are devoted to applying nuclear science and engineering technologies involving isotopes, radiation applications, and associated equipment in scientific research, development, and industrial processes. Their interests lie primarily in education, industrial uses, biology, medicine, and health physics. Division committees include Analytical Applications of Isotopes and Radiation, Biology and Medicine, Radiation Applications, Radiation Sources and Detection, and Thermal Power Sources.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Apr 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2025
Nuclear Technology
May 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
The 2025 ANS election results are in!
Spring marks the passing of the torch for American Nuclear Society leadership. During this election cycle, ANS members voted for the newest vice president/president-elect, treasurer, and six board of director positions (four U.S., one non-U.S., one student). New professional division leadership was also decided on in this election, which opened February 25 and closed April 15. About 21 percent of eligible members of the Society voted—a similar turnout to last year.
Gang Li
Nuclear Technology | Volume 189 | Number 1 | January 2015 | Pages 11-29
Technical Paper | Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-115
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The purpose of this investigation is to design a nonlinear pressurized water reactor (PWR) core load-following control system for regulating the core power level and axial power difference and to analyze the global stability of the system. In modeling a two-point–based nonlinear PWR core without boron, the power rod and axial offset (AO) rod are considered. The two points are the bottom half and top half of the core. When the power rod and AO rod are in the same point (case 1), the power rod is an input, and the core power level is an output. When the power rod and AO rod in the core are not in the same point (case 2), the power rod and the AO rod are two inputs, and the core power level and axial power difference are two outputs. For each case, linearized models of the core at five power levels are chosen as local models of the core to substitute for the nonlinear core model over the global range of the power level. For case 1, proportional integral derivative (PID) control is utilized to design a controller of every local model as a local controller of the nonlinear core. For case 2, inverse Nyquist array control with the linear matrix inequalities method and PID control are adopted to devise a decoupling compensator and a dynamic controller for every local model, and their combination is a local controller of the nonlinear core. Based on the local models and local controllers of each case, the idea of flexibility control is used to design a decent controller of the nonlinear core at a random power level. A nonlinear core model and a flexibility controller at a random power level compose a core load-following control subsystem. The combination of core load-following control subsystems at all power levels is the core load-following control system for every case. Two global stability theorems are deduced to show that the core load-following control systems for the two cases are globally asymptotically stable within the whole range of the power level. Finally, the core load-following control system for each case is simulated, and the simulation results show that the control system is effective.