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2026 Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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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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What’s the most difficult question you’ve been asked as a maintenance instructor?
Blye Widmar
"Where are the prints?!"
This was the final question in an onslaught of verbal feedback, comments, and critiques I received from my students back in 2019. I had two years of instructor experience and was teaching a class that had been meticulously rehearsed in preparation for an accreditation visit. I knew the training material well and transferred that knowledge effectively enough for all the students to pass the class. As we wrapped up, I asked the students how they felt about my first big system-level class, and they did not hold back.
“Why was the exam from memory when we don’t work from memory in the plant?” “Why didn’t we refer to the vendor documents?” “Why didn’t we practice more on the mock-up?” And so on.
Victor C. Leite, Roberto Schirru, Miguel Mattar Neto
Nuclear Technology | Volume 205 | Number 5 | May 2019 | Pages 637-645
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2018.1516056
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
One of the main roles of the nuclear fuel bundle spacer grid (SG) is to safely support the fuel rods (FRs) through springs and dimples. The SG design is an important matter for nuclear power plant operation when a damaged FR could release fission products. For this work, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is applied to define the geometries of the springs and dimples existing in a SG. Other algorithms had been used to optimize these geometries but not PSO. This paper proposes a PSO variable model and its fitness function in order to define an optimized geometry for the spring and the dimple so that they can provide sufficient gripping forces and minimize stresses. The implemented PSO was able to generate geometries of springs and dimples with stresses minimized and with a specific required stiffness value. The results of these two characteristics are compared with other results in the literature. For further work, PSO will be used to optimize other important design characteristics of a SG: grid-to-rod fretting, coolant flow-induced vibration, and the function of mixing coolant.