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2026 Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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Latest News
Blades-in turbine inspections at Quad Cities set new benchmark for Constellation
When Constellation decided to install replacement Alstom low-pressure turbines at three of its boiling water reactor plants more than 15 years ago, one benefit was knowing the new turbines should operate reliably—and without major inspections—for several years.
Bethany Burkhardt, Steven Krahn, Timothy Ault, Brandon Chisholm, Steven Lemasters, Kevin Adams (Vanderbilt Univ), Andrew Sowder (EPRI)
Proceedings | 16th International High-Level Radioactive Waste Management Conference (IHLRWM 2017) | Charlotte, NC, April 9-13, 2017 | Pages 224-230
Many software-enabled nuclear fuel cycle simulation tools (FCSTs) have been developed to support a range of end-users and to answer a range of questions. However, documentation of software-enabled FCST functionalities and capabilities has been limited, and most FCSTs have been designed to address a narrow set of questions such as reactor performance or nuclear fuel characteristics. Given the limited user community and resources, these tools are generally developed without the benefit of best practices from the commercial software engineering field. This paper provides a snapshot of the current population of FCSTs. In all, 16 software-enabled FCSTs were reviewed based on survey input from software developer and end-user communities. The survey instrument was organized by five major software architectural categories: functionality, usability, reliability, performance, and supportability. Because of the limited end-user population and noncommercial nature of software development efforts, the publicly shared results have been anonymized and limited primarily to population-level findings and trends.