[en] For the simulation of load-follow control operation of pressurized water reactors (PWRs), the system model needs to describe both primary and secondary system behaviors, because the load-change signal in the secondary system delivers a change in the primary system through the thermal-hydraulic interactions in the steam generator. In this study, the characteristics of load-follow control for a PWR were investigated using a one-dimensional core model combined with a simplified nuclear steam supply system model using optimization. The overall system model includes one-dimensional core neutronics with all the space-dependent feedback effects, Xe-I dynamics, core thermal balances, primary loop thermal balances, and steam generator dynamic responses to turbine load changes. The final system equations were manipulated for the lumped parameter representations by using the model expansion technique for the core model

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[en] In this paper the authors present the results of an investigation of a new pressurized water reactor load-following control concept that utilizes light gray (LG) banks in combination with a single high-worth bank. The investigation determined a control strategy and a set of nuclear design parameters for the control banks that permits unrestricted load-following operation over a wide power range at both beginning-of-cycle and end-of-cycle conditions. Advantages of the LG-bank control concept are that flexible load-following maneuvers can be performed without either making changes in the boron concentration or requiring the continuous insertion of a high-worth control bank. These features remove both of the disadvantages of current gray-bank load-following designs, which generally require the continuous insertion of a high-worth bank and in some cases also involve changes in the boron concentration

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[en] In this paper, the authors report on the results of an investigation of the feasibility of in situ use of a commercially available agglomerating agent (Resinex 60) to treat radioactively contaminated soils so that they will meet Waste Isolation Pilot Project (WIPP) particle size criterion for transportation and retrievable storage. The treatment process involves the wetting of the soil with an emulsion of submicron resin particles in an aqueous carrier. The carrier penetrates the soil and then evaporates leaving the finer particles bound in large agglomerates. The investigation examined a variety of treatment methods to determine an optimum technique for meeting the WIPP particle size criterion for transportation and disposal (< 1% by weight of < 10-μm particles and < 15% by weight of < 200-μm particles)

[en] The University of Cincinnati (UC) Nuclear Engineering Program Faculty has now had six years of experience in delivering on-site educational programs to nuclear power plant technical personnel. Programs of this type present a variety of challenges to the faculty, the management of the client utility and to the students who become involved in a particular program. This paper describes how each of these groups can identify and successfully solve these challenges. The solutions the authors describe are drawn from their own experiences which have been described in some detail elsewhere. Other solutions to those challenges are certainly possible. They make no claim for the particular ones they offer, beyond the fact that they have worked over a sustained period of time and that results they have produced have left all three parties mutually satisfied

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[en] In this paper, the authors present some initial results from an investigation of the application of a locally one-dimensional (LOD) finite difference method to the solution of the two-dimensional, two-group reactor kinetics equations. Although the LOD method is relatively well known, it apparently has not been previously applied to the space-time kinetics equations. In this investigation, the LOD results were benchmarked against similar computational results (using the same computing environment, the same programming structure, and the same sample problems) obtained by the TWIGL program. For all of the problems considered, the LOD method provided accurate results in one-half to one-eight of the time required by the TWIGL program