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Division Spotlight
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.
Meeting Spotlight
Conference on Nuclear Training and Education: A Biennial International Forum (CONTE 2023)
February 6–9, 2023
Amelia Island, FL|Omni Amelia Island Resort
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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Nuclear Science and Engineering
February 2023
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
January 2023
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Nuclear energy: enabling production of food, fiber, hydrocarbon biofuels, and negative carbon emissions
In the 1960s, Alvin Weinberg at Oak Ridge National Laboratory initiated a series of studies on nuclear agro-industrial complexes1 to address the needs of the world’s growing population. Agriculture was a central component of these studies, as it must be. Much of the emphasis was on desalination of seawater to provide fresh water for irrigation of crops. Remarkable advances have lowered the cost of desalination to make that option viable in countries like Israel. Later studies2 asked the question, are there sufficient minerals (potassium, phosphorous, copper, nickel, etc.) to enable a prosperous global society assuming sufficient nuclear energy? The answer was a qualified “yes,” with the caveat that mineral resources will limit some technological options. These studies were defined by the characteristic of looking across agricultural and industrial sectors to address multiple challenges using nuclear energy.
Yanzi Liu, Xuegang Zhang, Gang Zhang, Jianjun Jiang, Li Zhang, Hong Hu, Tao Qing, Yanhua Zou, Dan Yang, Liaozi Xi, Fan Tang, Ming Jia, Yiqian Wu, Zhiyao Liu
Nuclear Technology | Volume 207 | Number 1 | January 2021 | Pages 74-93
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2020.1733376
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The digital control system (DCS)+state-oriented procedure (SOP) system adopted by China’s Ling’ao Phase II nuclear power plant’s main control room requires changes to the cognitive process, behavior mode, and error mode while triggering new human factors. Therefore, in this paper we present a cognitive reliability model for the DCS+SOP system in the Ling’ao Phase II Nuclear Power Plant’s main control room and conduct a human reliability analysis. The model is based on the cognitive process with respect to considering the coordinator’s accident recovery effect and obtaining the method of calculating cognitive reliability. We determine impact factors for the three cognitive stages of the operator’s and the coordinator’s diagnosis, decision making, and operation. We obtain the operator’s and the coordinator’s weights for each process through an analytic hierarchy process. Using methods of simulation and analyzing the experiment data, we obtain revised coefficients for the cognitive reliability model. Additionally, the trend of the simulation curve indicates the rationality of the model. Finally, we provide an example based on the proposed cognitive reliability model. The process of analyzing the example demonstrates that this method provides a feasible analysis method for the cognitive reliability of the DCS+SOP system in the main control room.