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Aerospace Nuclear Science & Technology
Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
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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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Can hydrogen be the transportation fuel in an otherwise nuclear economy?
Let’s face it: The global economy should be powered primarily by nuclear power. And it probably will by the end of this century, with a still-significant assist from renewables and hydro. Once nuclear systems are dominant, the costs come down to where gas is now; and when carbon emissions are reduced to a small portion of their present state, it will become obvious that most other sources are only good in niche settings. I mean, why use small modular reactors to load-follow when they can just produce that power instead of buffering it?
Robert P. Martin, Simone H. Morgan, Christopher Cragg
Nuclear Technology | Volume 193 | Number 1 | January 2016 | Pages 200-212
Technical Paper | Special Issue on the RELAP5-3D Computer Code | doi.org/10.13182/NT14-140
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Evaluation methodologies are under development at BWX Technologies (BWXT) to support licensure of the BWXT small modular reactor. In these evaluation methodologies, RELAP5-3D is being used as the computation engine for reactor coolant system performance. To facilitate analyses, the RelapManager code was developed as a Windows-based graphical user interface for RELAP5-3D. It is used to edit RELAP5-3D input models and develop simulation suites with unique attention to the preparation of Quality Program records required per 10 CFR 50 Appendix B. The software has been created with Visual Studio employing the .NET integrated development environment. The programming focal point for RelapManager is an XML schema that captures the modeling rules inherent in RELAP5-3D. It transforms an existing input model into XML, which, through a large library of functions created to support XML file types, provides a rich user experience capable of improving productivity and quality.
RelapManager includes specialized features for the preparation of uncertainty and sensitivity/importance analyses, execution on a remote server, plotting, and data checking against the modeling rules. As a demonstration of these features, an uncertainty and importance analysis has been prepared using the “Typical PWR” test problem provided with the nominal RELAP5-3D release package. RelapManager takes as input uncertainty models characterizing the expected domain of model parameter variability. Subsequently, a calculation suite derived from sampling the uncertainty domain is described, and a run script is prepared by RelapManager. Figure of merit results are gathered by RelapManager and analyzed using a variance-based sensitivity analysis method.