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Division Spotlight
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
Meeting Spotlight
2025 ANS Annual Conference
June 15–18, 2025
Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott Downtown
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
July 2025
Nuclear Technology
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Latest News
Smarter waste strategies: Helping deliver on the promise of advanced nuclear
At COP28, held in Dubai in 2023, a clear consensus emerged: Nuclear energy must be a cornerstone of the global clean energy transition. With electricity demand projected to soar as we decarbonize not just power but also industry, transport, and heat, the case for new nuclear is compelling. More than 20 countries committed to tripling global nuclear capacity by 2050. In the United States alone, the Department of Energy forecasts that the country’s current nuclear capacity could more than triple, adding 200 GW of new nuclear to the existing 95 GW by mid-century.
Mohamed Elsamahy, Tarek F. Nagla, Mohamed A. E. Abdel-Rahman
Nuclear Technology | Volume 207 | Number 4 | April 2021 | Pages 558-574
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2020.1792742
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper proposes the application of a pattern recognition–based technique to enhance the process of control rod position identification in pressurized water reactors (PWRs). The proposed technique employs a multivariant analysis technique, namely, principal component analysis (PCA) and clustering analysis (CA) to identify the position of the PWR control rod using its impact on the core radial thermal neutron flux along the axial track of motion. The results of these investigations have shown that the proposed technique successfully removed the limitation on the data size and any limitations imposed by outlier samples, extracted the noise, and provided near-instantaneous analytical and visual ways for position identification process with excellent generalization fitting and prediction efficiencies. In the context of this paper, multiple in-depth simulations are conducted to ascertain the efficiency of the proposed technique in identifying the control rod positions. These simulations have been conducted using a Westinghouse 2772-MW(thermal) PWR benchmark at 100% thermal power generation, where a three-dimensional TRITON FORTRAN-code has been utilized to simulate the radial thermal neutron flux of the PWR core. The PCA model is developed, tested, and generalized using the SIMCA software package. In addition, CA is also performed via the Minitab statistics software package in order to confirm the efficiency of the proposed technique.