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Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
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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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Commercial nuclear innovation "new space" age
In early 2006, a start-up company launched a small rocket from a tiny island in the Pacific. It exploded, showering the island with debris. A year later, a second launch attempt sent a rocket to space but failed to make orbit, burning up in the atmosphere. Another year brought a third attempt—and a third failure. The following month, in September 2008, the company used the last of its funds to launch a fourth rocket. It reached orbit, making history as the first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to do so.
Shigeki Shiba, Daiki Iwahashi, Tsuyoshi Okawa
Nuclear Technology | Volume 209 | Number 8 | August 2023 | Pages 1154-1163
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2023.2191588
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
From the viewpoint of criticality management in the fuel debris retrieval operation at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, it is important in criticality safety analyses to consider the behavior of fuel debris particles as they fall into the water, given that the neutron moderation condition of the fuel debris can dramatically change. In this study, we evaluated a reactivity insertion while fuel debris particles dropped into the water. Specifically, we considered the effects of the fuel debris particle-size distribution in either an erroneous operation or a postulated accident in the fuel debris retrieval operation. Three types of fuel debris particle-size distribution were assumed: monodisperse, uniform, and Rosin-Rammler. The behaviors of the fuel debris particles during sedimentation were evaluated using the coupled Distinct Element Method–Moving Particle Simulation (DEM-MPS) code. The multiplication factors corresponding to the behaviors of the falling fuel debris were calculated by a continuous-energy Monte Carlo code MVP3.0 with JENDL-4.0. Consequently, the multiplication factors changed with the particle motions during the sedimentation, and the trends of the multiplication factors differed between the particle-size distributions. Especially, the 2-cm monodisperse particle-size distribution showed the highest multiplication factor during sedimentation, the trend of which differed from the others in the fuel debris particles dispersing and piled-up phases in the water.