Studies have revealed that plastic scintillators such as polyvinyl toluene and polystyrene can undergo environmentally related material damage (“fogging”) that adversely affects detection performance under certain conditions and histories. A …
The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is conducting confirmatory research for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for establishing standard methods of modeling and simulation to assess the effectiveness and reliability of ultrasonic …
As the nation’s nuclear fleet looks to life extension, advanced reactor (AdvRx) concepts are being considered as alternatives that may help meet anticipated energy needs. AdvRx concepts include small modular reactors (SMRs) where the electrical …
Enhanced risk monitors (ERMs) for active components in advanced reactor concepts use predictive estimates of component failure to update, in real time, predictive safety and economic risk metrics. These metrics have been shown to be capable of use in …
The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is conducting confirmatory research for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the validation of computational models for ultrasonic testing (UT). The purpose of this research is to determine if UT …
As the United States transitions to storing used fuel from commercial nuclear reactors in interim dry storage facilities for extended periods, utilities must be prepared to technically justify the viability of extended storage to the regulating …
Under certain environmental conditions, polyvinyl toluene (PVT) plastic scintillator has been observed to undergo internal fogging. This document reports on a study of acoustic techniques to determine whether they can provide a diagnostic for the …
This project involved the development of enhanced risk monitors (ERMs) for active components in Advanced Reactor (AdvRx) designs by integrating real-time information about equipment condition with risk monitors. Health monitoring techniques in …
The harsh environments in advanced reactors (AdvRx) increase the possibility of degradation of safety-critical passive components, and therefore pose a particular challenge for deployment and extended operation of these concepts. Nondestructive …
This milestone report presents an update on the state-of-the-art review and research being conducted to identify key indicators of in-containment cable aging at nuclear power plants (NPPs), and devise in-situ measurement techniques that are sensitive …