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The Young Members Group works to encourage and enable all young professional members to be actively involved in the efforts and endeavors of the Society at all levels (Professional Divisions, ANS Governance, Local Sections, etc.) as they transition from the role of a student to the role of a professional. It sponsors non-technical workshops and meetings that provide professional development and networking opportunities for young professionals, collaborates with other Divisions and Groups in developing technical and non-technical content for topical and national meetings, encourages its members to participate in the activities of the Groups and Divisions that are closely related to their professional interests as well as in their local sections, introduces young members to the rules and governance structure of the Society, and nominates young professionals for awards and leadership opportunities available to members.
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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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College students help develop waste-measuring device at Hanford
A partnership between Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) and Washington State University has resulted in the development of a device to measure radioactive and chemical tank waste at the Hanford Site. WRPS is the contractor at Hanford for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management.
Samuel E. Bays, Cliff B. Davis, Periann A. Archibald
Nuclear Technology | Volume 201 | Number 3 | March 2018 | Pages 209-227
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2017.1415091
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This work supports the acceptability of the two-dimensional deterministic transport code HELIOS to replace the legacy diffusion code PDQ for computing the peak-power performance parameters of the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR). The 95% Confidence Rule, commonly used in the commercial reactor sector, is explored to develop the so-called reliability factors that provide statistical confidence that the peak-power limits within the hottest location along a fuel plate, referred to as the hot stripe, will not be exceeded. Additionally, an alternative “legacy” methodology was explored that attempts to mimic the exact PDQ analysis process used for defining the peak-power limits. The legacy methodology involves interpolating power between regions at azimuthal boundaries subtending the regions of interest.
In order to apply the 95% Confidence Rule, a statistically significant calculation-to-measurement bias must first be established. Unlike the commercial world, where thousands of power observations can be collected every cycle using online flux-mapping instrumentation, the ATR power distribution must be measured during “depressurized” zero-power measurements using fission wires in polyethylene wands. In 2012, fission wire activation data were collected during a flux run in the Advanced Test Reactor Critical Facility. Also to improve statistical validity, archival data from ATR zero-power flux runs from 1977, 1986, and 1994 were digitized from scanned reports and used to create new benchmark models. Borrowing from least-squares adjustment methods commonly used for neutron activation spectroscopy, adjusted fission wire powers were calculated for all four data sets. The mean and standard deviation of the bias between a priori calculated and adjusted wire powers were then taken as the bias and uncertainty used in the 95% Confidence Rule.