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Division Spotlight
Nuclear Installations Safety
Devoted specifically to the safety of nuclear installations and the health and safety of the public, this division seeks a better understanding of the role of safety in the design, construction and operation of nuclear installation facilities. The division also promotes engineering and scientific technology advancement associated with the safety of such facilities.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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
June 2024
Nuclear Technology
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Latest News
Proof of concept: The Molten Salt Reactor Experiment in Nuclear News
By late 1960, when the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission authorized plans to build a Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the lab already had about 13 years of experimentation with molten salt reactors under its longest-serving lab director, Alvin Weinberg. The MSRE operated from 1965 to 1969, proving that molten salt reactors could operate reliably, and with alternatives to uranium-235 too.
Brent Shumaker, Steven Brewer, Alexander Hashemian, Ryan Kettle
Nuclear Technology | Volume 209 | Number 3 | March 2023 | Pages 390-400
Technical Paper—Instrumentation and Controls | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2022.2067460
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper presents the results of an ongoing research and development effort to develop an online monitoring (OLM) system to support autonomous microreactor operations. A key component of this work is an evaluation of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) techniques to identify, diagnose, and predict problems with sensors and processes of the reactor. As described herein, selected methods of AI/ML were used to identify and diagnose anomalous sensor and system behaviors using data from a thermal-hydraulic flow loop and from operating nuclear power plants. This work serves to further the state of the art in OLM technologies for nuclear reactor applications and will ultimately result in a comprehensive system to enable OLM of critical structures, systems, components, and processes in microreactors.