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
Education, Training & Workforce Development
The Education, Training & Workforce Development Division provides communication among the academic, industrial, and governmental communities through the exchange of views and information on matters related to education, training and workforce development in nuclear and radiological science, engineering, and technology. Industry leaders, education and training professionals, and interested students work together through Society-sponsored meetings and publications, to enrich their professional development, to educate the general public, and to advance nuclear and radiological science and engineering.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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
Mar 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
April 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
February 2024
Latest News
Direct waste transfer process quickens at Savannah River Site
The Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management’s liquid waste contractor at the Savannah River Site this month marked the first direct transfer of decontaminated waste from the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) to the Saltstone Production Facility (SPF). This is a new step in optimizing waste processing, according to the DOE.
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.