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Division Spotlight
Robotics & Remote Systems
The Mission of the Robotics and Remote Systems Division is to promote the development and application of immersive simulation, robotics, and remote systems for hazardous environments for the purpose of reducing hazardous exposure to individuals, reducing environmental hazards and reducing the cost of performing work.
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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February 2024
Latest News
Can hydrogen be the transportation fuel in an otherwise nuclear economy?
Let’s face it: The global economy should be powered primarily by nuclear power. And it probably will by the end of this century, with a still-significant assist from renewables and hydro. Once nuclear systems are dominant, the costs come down to where gas is now; and when carbon emissions are reduced to a small portion of their present state, it will become obvious that most other sources are only good in niche settings. I mean, why use small modular reactors to load-follow when they can just produce that power instead of buffering it?
Michael Pietrykowski, Carol Smidts (Ohio State)
Proceedings | Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technolgies (NPIC&HMIT 2019) | Orlando, FL, February 9-14, 2019 | Pages 296-307
Hardware-in-the-loop test configurations require real-time execution speeds from their simulation components for best results. Slower-than-real-time simulations can degrade test result accuracy, completely invalidate a test, and potentially even damage the hardware component being tested; however, some simulations required for testing cannot be guaranteed to run in real time or faster-than-real-time. Thus, we developed a method to allow slower-than-real-time simulations to be used in HIL test setups. Input signals to the simulation are predicted using a simplified hardware model. The simulation uses these predicted values to run “ahead” of the hardware component in time. When a sufficient time margin is obtained, depending on the actual execution speed of the simulation, the hardware component is connected to the stored simulation results computed using the predicted inputs from the hardware model and the test commences. Simulation results are supplied to the hardware component in real time, for as long as the simulation time margin remains. A case study using a small modular reactor simulation code shows that using this method allows test lengths at least 350% longer and simulation error of 0.6% compared to 36%.