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Division Spotlight
Nuclear Installations Safety
Devoted specifically to the safety of nuclear installations and the health and safety of the public, this division seeks a better understanding of the role of safety in the design, construction and operation of nuclear installation facilities. The division also promotes engineering and scientific technology advancement associated with the safety of such facilities.
Meeting Spotlight
2025 ANS Annual Conference
June 15–18, 2025
Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott Downtown
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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Nuclear Science and Engineering
July 2025
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Latest News
Smarter waste strategies: Helping deliver on the promise of advanced nuclear
At COP28, held in Dubai in 2023, a clear consensus emerged: Nuclear energy must be a cornerstone of the global clean energy transition. With electricity demand projected to soar as we decarbonize not just power but also industry, transport, and heat, the case for new nuclear is compelling. More than 20 countries committed to tripling global nuclear capacity by 2050. In the United States alone, the Department of Energy forecasts that the country’s current nuclear capacity could more than triple, adding 200 GW of new nuclear to the existing 95 GW by mid-century.
Adam Rau, James Turso (Penn State)
Proceedings | Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technolgies (NPIC&HMIT 2019) | Orlando, FL, February 9-14, 2019 | Pages 1352-1360
Maintaining system stability is an important task for operators of nuclear reactors. Automatic control can be a valuable tool in achieving this, however many modern control methods require a model of the system. These models may not account for changes in system parameters resulting from continued use or different operating points. Robust control techniques can account for such uncertainties, guaranteeing stability provided that plant parameters and dynamics remain within specified uncertainty bounds. The present work applies robust control methods to design a controller for the Penn State Breazeale Reactor (PSBR). The impact of wear on the control rod drive mechanism and changes resulting from different reactor power set points are considered. A Simulink model of the PSBR from [1] was linearized and simplified for the purpose of controller design. The model uses the normalized point-kinetics equations and core-averaged thermal-hydraulics. H? control synthesis methods were used to accommodate changes in power level and wear in the control rod drive mechanisms. System stability was verified on a Simulink model, and controller performance was compared to a proportional controller.