Award Data

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 ...

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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 ...

PROGRESSION OF MOLTEN POOL, FORMED IN SEVERE ACCIDENT SCENARIOS, IS STRONGLY DEPENDENT ON ITS HEAT TRANSFER CHARACTERISTICS. THE PURPOSE OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH IS TO PERFORM A COMPUTATIONAL ANALYSIS OF THE TURBULENT NATURAL CONVECTION IN INTERNALLY HEATED POOLS. TWO VERSIONS OF THE LOW-REYNOLDS-NUMBER MODELS WILL BE FIRST VALIDATED FOR THE PREDICTION OF TURBULENT NATURAL CONVECTION FLOWS OF INTE ...

THIS WORK IS TO DEVELOP A METHOD TO IMPROVE THE ABILITY OF THE USNRC TO EVALUATE THE OPERATIONAL SAFETY SIGNIFICANCE OF OCCURANCES AT NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS. PERHAPS THE AREA OF GREATEST SAFETY SIGNIFICANCE IS HUMAN PERFORMANCE, BUT THE TECHNIQUES USED BY NRC DO NOT EVALUATE HUMAN PERFORMANCE IN ANY SYSTEMIC WAY. THE WORK IS PROPOSED TO BE PERFORMED IN THREE STAGES, AND BUILDS ON METHODS THAT HAVE B ...

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