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Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
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2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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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
X-energy receives federal tax credit for TRISO fuel facility
Advanced reactor company X-energy has been awarded $148.5 million in tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act for construction of its TRISO-X fuel fabrication facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Aaron Derouin, Alice Salway
Nuclear Technology | Volume 201 | Number 2 | February 2018 | Pages 165-173
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2017.1413922
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
After the Fukushima Daiichi accident, nuclear regulators around the world have required that power reactor licensees develop more extensive emergency mitigating responses and severe accident management provisions beyond the defense-in-depth measures for design-basis accidents previously in place. Workload assessments represent common validation techniques that are used to demonstrate that workers are able to perform tasks without unacceptable performance degradation. High workload is known to induce stress and fatigue and may severely diminish a worker’s capacity to perceive, recognize, and respond appropriately during emergency or unanticipated events, which may result in undesirable consequences. In estimating workload during emergency and severe accident scenarios, power reactor licensees tend to rely on subjective measures of workload, such as the NASA Task Load Index. Because of reported mismatches in the literature between subjective and physiologically derived estimates of workload, it is prudent to see what more can be done to improve the current state of practice in the context of emergency and severe accident conditions.
To improve confidence in workload estimates, it is advocated that the nuclear industry integrate physiologically based measures into current practices by making use of on-body or wearable physiological sensors. In this paper, an overview of three different approaches to the empirical measurement of workload is provided. The advantages of wearable physiological sensors are considered in the context of extreme environments and occupations, with tangible examples including heat stress and pupillometry. Suggestions for a consensus forum on workload are provided, and a research plan directed at improving the current practice of workload estimation is offered for consideration.