A Performance Indicator for Reduction in Vulnerability Through Stabilization of Plutonium

The US Department of Energy (DOE) is currently storing several metric tons of plutonium in various forms in a variety of facilities throughout the DOE complex. Since the cessation of weapons production in 1990, many of these facilities with plutonium in storage have not operated. Since the shutdown was regarded as temporary, little attempt was made at that time to empty the process lines of plutonium, or to place the plutonium in containers or packages that would provide safe storage for extended periods of time. As a result, the packages and containers providing interim storage are vulnerable to failure through leakage, rupture and other modes, and pose potential hazards to facility workers, the public and the environment. Here, an approach to measuring and tracking the reduction in vulnerabilities resulting from stabilizing and repackaging plutonium is developed and presented. The approach utilizes results obtained by the DOE Working Group on the vulnerabilities associated with plutonium storage

<span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family: "Times New Roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language: HI" lang="EN-US">Effect of crucible shape on the solution hydrodynamic in the growth of KTiOPO₄single crystals by top-seeded solution growth method: A numerical analysis</span>

675-680Three-dimensional solution flow and temperature field simulations were performed to model the growth of KTiOPO4 single crystals by TSSG method. Steady flow and temperature field for four crucible shapes were computed using finite volume method. Our results show the effect of crucible shape on axial flow which has direct effect on homogeneity of solution, morphology of crystal and mass transport during the growth of crystals from solution. In order to consider the simulation results, KTiOPO4 single crystals were grown by TSSG method in crucibles with different shapes. </span

Advanced reactor instrumentation and control reliability and risk assessment

Advanced nuclear power reactors will used different approaches to achieving a higher level of safety than the first generation. One approach used the technological developments in computation and electronics in the form of digital instrumentation and control (I&C) to enhance the reliability, and accuracy of information for plant control, responding to the information, and controlling the plant and its systems under normal and upset environments in various states of degradation. Evaluating the reliability and safety of advanced I&C systems requires determining the reliability of the I&C used in the advanced reactors which involves distributed processing, data pile-up, interactive systems, the man-machine interface, various forms of automatic control, and systems interactions. From these analyses will come an understanding of the potential of the new I&C, and protection from its vulnerabilities to enhance the safe operation of the new plants. Technological, safety, reliability, and regulatory issues associated with advanced I&C for the new reactors are discussed herein. The issues are presented followed by suggested approaches to their resolution

Advanced Reactor Instrumentation and Control Reliability and Risk Assessment

Advanced nuclear power reactors will used different approaches to achieving a higher level of safety than the first generation. One approach used the technological developments in computation and electronics in the form of digital instrumentation and control (I C) to enhance the reliability, and accuracy of information for plant control, responding to the information, and controlling the plant and its systems under normal and upset environments in various states of degradation. Evaluating the reliability and safety of advanced I C systems requires determining the reliability of the I C used in the advanced reactors which involves distributed processing, data pile-up, interactive systems, the man-machine interface, various forms of automatic control, and systems interactions. From these analyses will come an understanding of the potential of the new I C, and protection from its vulnerabilities to enhance the safe operation of the new plants. Technological, safety, reliability, and regulatory issues associated with advanced I C for the new reactors are discussed herein. The issues are presented followed by suggested approaches to their resolution

A safety and regulatory assessment of generic BWR and PWR permanently shutdown nuclear power plants

The long-term availability of less expensive power and the increasing plant modification and maintenance costs have caused some utilities to re-examine the economics of nuclear power. As a result, several utilities have opted to permanently shutdown their plants. Each licensee of these permanently shutdown (PSD) plants has submitted plant-specific exemption requests for those regulations that they believe are no longer applicable to their facility. This report presents a regulatory assessment for generic BWR and PWR plants that have permanently ceased operation in support of NRC rulemaking activities in this area. After the reactor vessel is defueled, the traditional accident sequences that dominate the operating plant risk are no longer applicable. The remaining source of public risk is associated with the accidents that involve the spent fuel. Previous studies have indicated that complete spent fuel pool drainage is an accident of potential concern. Certain combinations of spent fuel storage configurations and decay times, could cause freshly discharged fuel assemblies to self heat to a temperature where the self sustained oxidation of the zircaloy fuel cladding may cause cladding failure. This study has defined four spent fuel configurations which encompass all of the anticipated spent fuel characteristics and storage modes following permanent shutdown. A representative accident sequence was chosen for each configuration. Consequence analyses were performed using these sequences to estimate onsite and boundary doses, population doses and economic costs. A list of candidate regulations was identified from a screening of 10 CFR Parts 0 to 199. The continued applicability of each regulation was assessed within the context of each spent fuel storage configuration and the results of the consequence analyses

The effects of age on nuclear power plant containment cooling systems

A study was performed to assess the effects of aging on the performance and availability of containment cooling systems in US commercial nuclear power plants. This study is part of the Nuclear Plant Aging Research (NPAR) program sponsored by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The objectives of this program are to provide an understanding of the aging process and how it affects plant safety so that it can be properly managed. This is one of a number of studies performed under the NPAR program which provide a technical basis for the identification and evaluation of degradation caused by age. The effects of age were characterized for the containment cooling system by reviewing and analyzing failure data from national databases, as well as plant-specific data. The predominant failure causes and aging mechanisms were identified, along with the components that failed most frequently. Current inspection, surveillance, and monitoring practices were also examined. A containment cooling system unavailability analysis was performed to examine the potential effects of aging by increasing failure rates for selected components. A commonly found containment spray system design and a commonly found fan cooler system design were modeled. Parametric failure rates for those components in each system that could be subject to aging were accounted for in the model to simulate the time-dependent effects of aging degradation, assuming no provisions are made to properly manage it. System unavailability as a function of increasing component failure rates was then calculated

An Experimental Comparison of Path Planning Techniques for Teams of Mobile Robots

This paper considers the problem of path planning for teams of mobile robots. It investigates two decoupled and prioritized approaches to coordinate the movements of the mobile robots in their environment. The first approach considered is the coordination technique. The second approach is an A -based path planning technique which computes the paths for the individual robots in the configuration time-space. Thereby it trades off the distance to both to static objects as well as to other robots and the length of the path to be traveled. In different experiments carried out with real robots and in simulations we demonstrate that the A -based approach is well suited to control the motions of a team of robots in various environments and illustrate its advantages over the coordination technique