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Aerospace Nuclear Science & Technology
Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
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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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Latest News
From South Korea to Belgium: Testing a high-density research reactor fuel
The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute has developed a high-density uranium silicide fuel designed to replace high-enriched uranium in research reactors. Recent irradiation tests appear to be successful, KAERI reports, which means the fuel could be commercialized to continue a key global nuclear nonproliferation effort—converting research reactors to run on low-enriched uranium fuel.
A. T. Young, W. Aylward, P. Murray, G. M. West, S, D. J. McArthur (Univ of Strathclyde)
Proceedings | Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technolgies (NPIC&HMIT 2019) | Orlando, FL, February 9-14, 2019 | Pages 711-720
Of the seven Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor nuclear power stations in the UK, the majority are approaching their planned closure date. As the graphite core of these type of reactors cannot be repaired or replaced, this is one of the main life-limiting factors. The refuelling of a nuclear power station is an ongoing process and refuelling of the reactor occurs typically every 6 to 8 weeks. During this process, data relating to the weight of the fuel assembly is recorded: this data is called fuel grab load trace data and the major contributing factor to this are the frictional forces, with a magnitude related to the channel bore diameter. Through an understanding of this data, it is possible to manually interpret whether there are any defects in the individual brick layers that make up the graphite core but doing so requires significant expertise, experience and understanding. In this paper, we present a knowledge-based system to automatically detect defects in individual brick layers in the fuel grab load trace data. This is accomplished using a set of rules defined by specialist engineers. Secondly, by splitting up the trace into overlapping regions, the use of multiple deep autoencoders is explored to produce a generative model for a normal response. Using this model, it is possible to detect responses that do not generalise and identify anomalies such as defects in the individual brick layers. Finally, the two approaches are compared, and conclusions are drawn about the applications of these techniques into industry.