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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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DOE-NE’s newest fuel consortium includes defense from antitrust laws
The Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy is setting up a nuclear fuel Defense Production Act Consortium that will seek voluntary agreements with interested companies “to increase fuel availability, provide more access to reliable power, and end America’s reliance on foreign sources of enriched uranium and critical materials needed to power the nation’s nuclear renaissance.” According to an August 22 DOE press release, the plan invokes the Defense Production Act (DPA) to give consortium members “defense from antitrust laws when certain criteria are met” and “allow industry consultation to develop plans of action.” DOE-NE is looking for interested companies to join the consortium ahead of its first meeting, scheduled for October 14.
Taeseung Lee, Richard B. Vilim (ANL)
Proceedings | Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technolgies (NPIC&HMIT 2019) | Orlando, FL, February 9-14, 2019 | Pages 209-221
The Supervisory Control System (SCS) provides overall coordination of the plant actuators that includes automatically regulating process variables so that performance goals are safely met for all operating modes. The system during normal electric power production operates through a hierarchical structure with steam demand supplied as an input at the top level, and based on this value, coordinated set points are issued to lower level sub-system controllers. Through the use of the Supervisory Control System, hot-side temperatures can be maintained near-constant during transients so that thermal fatigue is significantly reduced from otherwise. The design strategy for the control system regards the plant response to a change in electric generator load as consisting of two components: steady-state and transient. There is the equilibrium state the plant will reach in asymptotic time (steady-state) in response to the changed condition. The steady-state control algorithm, or Load Schedule as it is known, manages steady-state temperatures. There is the dynamic component of the response (transient) which can be regarded as superimposed on the asymptotic state. The Single-Input Single-Output (SISO) Controllers manage the dynamic response component. In this work, the Supervisory Control System is designed for electric power operation of a pool-type metallic-fueled Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (SFR). 10% step and 5%/min ramp load change cases were simulated with a one-dimensional system analysis code to assess the performance of the SISO controllers.