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Nuclear Installations Safety
Devoted specifically to the safety of nuclear installations and the health and safety of the public, this division seeks a better understanding of the role of safety in the design, construction and operation of nuclear installation facilities. The division also promotes engineering and scientific technology advancement associated with the safety of such facilities.
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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!
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Latest News
Commercial nuclear innovation "new space" age
In early 2006, a start-up company launched a small rocket from a tiny island in the Pacific. It exploded, showering the island with debris. A year later, a second launch attempt sent a rocket to space but failed to make orbit, burning up in the atmosphere. Another year brought a third attempt—and a third failure. The following month, in September 2008, the company used the last of its funds to launch a fourth rocket. It reached orbit, making history as the first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to do so.
Marzio Marseguerra, Enrico Zio, Fabio Marcucci
Nuclear Technology | Volume 154 | Number 2 | May 2006 | Pages 224-236
Technical Paper | Nuclear Plant Operations and Control | doi.org/10.13182/NT06-A3730
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The control and operation of complex power-generating systems, such as nuclear power plants, rely on the measurements of several sensors that monitor the process and the system state. On the basis of the sensor measurements, the system is operated for maximum economic efficiency and safety. Out-of-calibration sensors can lead to misinterpretation of the system state and problems with control and operation of the process, with possible economic losses, equipment damage, and safety consequences. To avoid such occurrences, periodic sensor calibrations are scheduled to ensure that sensors are operating correctly. These calibrations are performed manually and involve all sensors, independent of the actual need for calibration of each sensor. Continuous sensor calibration monitoring would then be most desirable both to ensure correct process control and system operation and to reduce maintenance costs associated with performing unnecessary manual sensor calibrations. This latter issue is of great relevance in nuclear power plants due to the large number of sensors employed, which are tested for calibration at each refueling outage. In this paper, the artificial neural network-based sensor calibration monitoring system is proposed to provide continuous sensor status information and virtual estimates for faulty sensors. In particular, we illustrate the design of an autoassociative artificial neural network for sensor fault detection and validation. The efficiency of the proposed method is verified through its application to eight critical transient signals coming from a U-tube steam generator of a pressurized water reactor modeled by means of a validated simulation code.