Award Data

RESIDUAL LIFETIME EVALUATION OF EXISTING NUCLEAR FACILITIES REQUIRES DETAILED INFORMATION REGARDING CONDITION OF CONTAINMENT AND SUPPORT STRUCTURES. CURRENT NONDESTRUCTIVE METHODS FOR SUBSURFACE EVALUATION OF REINFORCED CONCRETE USE COMPLEX EQUIPMENT AND RELY HEAVILY ON INTERPRETATION BY THE OPERATOR. A RESEARCH EFFORT IS PROPOSED TO EXAMINE THE USE OF COMPUTERIZED TOMOGRAPHIC IMAGING FOR LOCATING ...

AT MULTI-UNIT NUCLEAR GENRATING STATIONS, CONTROL ROOM OPERATORS ARE GENERALLY LICENSED TO OPERATE ALL SIMILAR UNITS. SIMULATOR TRAINING CONDUCTED AT THE LICENSEE TRAINING FACILITY OCCURS ON ONE SIMULATOR WHICH MAY NOT EXACTLY MIMIC ANY UNIT. INADEQUATE TRAINING ON UNIT-TO-UNIT AND UNIT-TO-SIMULATOR DIFFERENCES, IN CONJUNCTION WITH LIMITED PER-PERSON SIMULATOR TRAINING HOURS, CAN RESULT IN INCREAS ...

DETERMINATION OF URANIUM IN THE URINE OF WORKERS IS REQUIRED BY THE NRC AT NUCLEAR FACILITIES. EXTREMELY LOW CONCENTRATIONS OF URANIUM, ESPECIALLY IN SMALL SAMPLES, ARE DIFFICULT TO MEASURE USING EXISTING TECHNOLOGY. FUTURE NRC PLANS TO CHARACTERIZE BIOAVAILABLE URANIUM FRACTIONS COMPRISING THE URANIUM BODY BURDEN WILL REQUIRE EVEN HIGHER SENSITIVITIES. HIGH SENSITIVITY TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPED FOR UR ...

WHEN ROTATING MACHINERY DETERIORATES, VIBRTION PATTERSN CHANGE. WHEN BEARING FREQUENCIES APPEAR, THEN INCREASE IN AMPLITUDE, BEARING FAILURE LOOMS. THE SAME WITH VALVES; WHEN THEY LEAK, THEY VIBRATE. AS LEAKAGE INCREASES, THE VIBRATION PATTERN CHANGES. THERE ARE MANY OTHERS. THE KEY IS KNOWING WHERE AND HOW DEEPLY TO LOOK. THE KEY IN OLDER REACTOR PLANTS IS TO UNOBTRUSIVELY, ECONOMICALLY BACKFIT S ...

CHANGES IN PLANT STATUS, EITHER BEFORE OR DURING AN ACCIDENT SEQUENC CAN CONSIDERABLY AFFECT ITS OUTCOME; BOTH THE ACTURAL OUTCOME AND THAT PREDICTED BY PROBABILISTIC RISK ASSESSMENT. IN ORDER TO ACCURATELY REPRESENT THE POSSIBLE ACCIDENTS AND THEIR PROBABILITIES, THE PRA MODEL MUST CONSIDER THE DYNAMIC CHARACTER OF THE PLANT, IT'S SYSTEMS AND OPERATORS. A LIVING, DYNAMIC PRA IS ONE IN WHICH ALL T ...

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THE PURPOSE OF THIS EFFORT IS TO STUDY THE FEASIBILITY OF AND, HOPEFULLY, VALIDATE THE USE OF TASK NETWORK MODELING TOSTUDY HUMAN FACTORS IN THE CONTROL ROOM. TASK NETWORK MODELING EXTENDS A HUMAN ENGINEERING TASK ANALYSIS INTO A COMPUTER MODEL. WE PROPOSE THAT PERTURBING THE INDIVIDUAL TASKS IN A TASK NETWORK MODEL IN A MANNER PREDICTED FROM CONTROL ROOM DESIGN CHANGES, TASK AUTOMATION, OR THE CO ...

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SIGNIFICANT CONSERVATISM IN MODERN SEISMIC PRA DERIVES FROM SIMPLIFICATIONS IN GROUND-MOTION CHARACTERIZATION AT THE INTERFACE OF SEISMIC HAZARD AND FRAGILITY METHODOLOGIES. THIS CONSERVATISM ARISES BECAUSE A SINGLE COMPOSITE-MAGNITUDE, BROAD-BAND, GROUND-MOTION SPECTRUM IS USED TO DERIVE FRAGILITY FUNCTIONS, WHEREAS THE MAJORITY OF MOTIONS CONTRIBUTING TO SITE HAZARD HAVE (LESS-DAMAGING) NARROW-B ...

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