CTR Technical Services Newsletter

2010

Modular Power - The mPower^TM Reactor

Babcock & Wilcox has designed a "small" nuclear reactor that can generate 125 Megawatts of electricity in a single unit. This is enough electricity to power 100,000 homes. Several of them can be combined to increase the available electric power as demand increases. The unique features of this reactor are:

• No refueling for 4 or 5 years
• No soluble boron
• Reactivity control done entirely with control rods
• Passive safety system
• All components housed in a single vessel
• Uses proven light water fuel technology
• 60 year design lifetime
• All used fuel can be stored for the life of the reactor
• Underground containment

The entire nuclear steam supply system can be manufactured off-site and shipped by rail to the site. The scalability and modularity of the design provides the electrical needs of small and medium sized cities or industrial complexes without the huge capital costs and infrastructure associated with large reactors.

The reactor core has been designed with plenty of margin to the local heat rate and departure from nucleate boiling ratio (DNBR) limits. The core power distribution will be monitored by fixed incore detectors to ensure that the reactor is operated within the design limits. CTR Technical Services has been contracted to help design the advanced fixed incore system while relying on proven technology.

Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station

The Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station is a twin reactor nuclear power station owned by Florida Power & Light (FP&L) located on a 3,300-acre site 2 miles east of Homestead, Florida. It lies next to Biscayne National Park located 24 miles south of Miami. It is home to a wildlife preserve, helping the population of the American Crocodile to increase such that the species has been reclassified from "endangered" to the less serious category of "threatened." The reactors are Westinghouse pressurized water reactors rated at 693 MWe for each unit.

In 2002, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission extended the operating licenses for both nuclear reactors from 40 years to 60 years. FP&L also plans to increase the capacity of each unit by about 100 MWe bringing the total output to about 800 MWe for each unit. On June 30, 2009, FP&L submitted a combined construction and operating license application for two 1117-MWe Westinghouse AP1000 reactors. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2012 with the first unit going online in 2017.

Charles Rombough of CTR Technical Services and Dale Lancaster of NuclearConsultants.com were recently contracted to perform a criticality analysis of the pools storing the Turkey Point used fuel assemblies.

In 1992, Turkey Point was directly hit by Hurricane Andrew, causing damage to a water tank and to a smokestack of one of the site's fossil-fueled units. There was no damage to the nuclear units' containment buildings. The buildings are designed to withstand winds of up to 235 mph, greatly exceeding the maximum winds recorded for Category 5 hurricanes.

Puzzle

Jack and John are twin brothers and both have dual personalities. Jack in his normal state always tells the truth, but in his altered state always lies. John is the opposite; in his normal state, John always lies, but in his altered state, he always tells the truth. The two are indistinguishable in appearance.

1. Suppose you meet one of the brothers one day and wish to know whether he is Jack or John. You may ask him only one question answerable by yes or no, and the question must be simple, not compound; that is, it must not contain logical connectives such as and, or, not, if/then. There is a perfectly simple straightforward question that will do the job. What question will work?
   
   
2. Another time you meet one of the brothers and wish to know not whether he is Jack or John but whether he is in his normal or altered state. What simple yes/no question would determine this?
   
   
3. Suppose that instead of wanting to know what state a twin is in, you wish to know whether both brothers are in the same state or not. What simple yes/no question would you ask?
   
   
4. If you meet one of the two, it is obvious how you can tell whether he is in a truthful state. Just ask him a question such as whether two plus two equals four. But suppose you want to know not whether he is now truthful, but whether his brother is now truthful. What simple yes/no question will accomplish this?
   
   
5. One day a medical doctor visited one of the brothers accompanied by the twins' mother. The doctor did not know whether it was Jack or John but knew which state he was in. The mother knew which one it was but did not know which state he was in. Then the man said, "I am John and am now in my altered state." The doctor still couldn't tell whether it was Jack or John, and the mother still couldn't tell which state he was in. Was it Jack or John, and which state was he in?

Status of Cask Burnup Credit

Under contract with Korean Nuclear Engineering Services Corporation, a comprehensive report on the status of cask burnup credit throughout the world has been compiled by CTR Technical Services. The report describes the advantages of using burnup credit in casks, the licensing status of current applications using burnup credit, a review of burnup credit analysis methods, a description of how to select limiting analysis parameters, and a discussion of validation methods.

Using burnup credit in the criticality analysis reduces the size of transportation and storage casks so that more fuel assemblies can be transported and stored thereby lowering costs and increasing safety. Burnup credit can range from "actinide only" to "full credit including all fission products". The more credit to be taken, the more careful the analyst must be to ensure that criticality will not occur.

Points to Ponder

1. What if there were no hypothetical questions?
2. If a parsley farmer is sued, can they garnish his wages?
3. Is there another word for "synonym"?
4. Where do forest rangers go to "get away from it all"?
5. What do you do when you see an endangered animal eating an endangered plant?
6. Would a fly without wings be called a "walk"?
7. If the police arrest a mime, do they tell him he has the right to remain silent?
8. Why do they put Braille on drive-through bank machines?
9. How do they get deer to cross the road only at those yellow road signs?
10. What was the best thing before sliced bread?
11. If you ate both pasta and antipasto, would you still be hungry?
12. If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?
13. Why is there an expiration date on sour cream?

The Wisdom of Thomas Jefferson

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.

No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.

The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

Quotes

Idealism increases in direct proportion to one's distance from the problem.

John Galsworthy

The deepest sin against the human mind is to believe things without evidence.

Thomas H. Huxley

Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them, the rest of us could not succeed.

Mark Twain

We've gone astray from first principles. We've lost sight of the rule that individual freedom and ingenuity are at the very core of everything that we've accomplished. Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.

Ronald Reagan

The only thing that separates successful people from the ones who aren't is the willingness to work very, very hard.

Helen Gurley Brown

I can accept failure, but I can't accept not trying.

Michael Jordan

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.

Aristotle

Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.

Jane Howard, British actress, model and novelist

Anything that won't sell, I don't want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success.

Thomas Edison

Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

Ben Franklin

To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.

Elbert Hubbard 1856-1915

Irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors.

Thomas H. Huxley

Answer to Puzzle

1. You have merely to ask: Are you in your normal state? Jack in his normal state will truthfully say yes, and in his altered state will falsely say yes. John in his normal state will falsely say no, and in his altered state will truthfully say no. And so, if the man answers yes, he must be Jack, and if he answers no, he must be John.
   
   
2. You have merely to ask: Are you Jack? What is the state of the man if the answer is yes and what is the state if the answer is no? The reader should be able to work out the logic as to why this works.
   
   
3. Ask him: Is your brother now truthful?
   
   
4. Ask: Are you now in the same state as your brother?
   
   
5. One thing is clear: Jack in his normal state could never claim to be John in the altered state, so if the doctor had known that the man was in his normal state, then he would have known that the man couldn't possibly be Jack, hence must be John. But the doctor didn't know, and therefore the man must have been in his altered state. On the other hand, if the mother had known that it was her son Jack, she would have known that he was in an altered state because he made an obviously false statement. But she didn't know, and so she must have known that it was John. And so the answer is that the man was John in his altered state (who spoke truthfully).

Who We Are

CTR Technical Services was incorporated on May 15, 1987 to provide technical support for the nuclear industry. Since then, we have done work for 35 worldwide organizations (located in 22 states and 4 foreign countries). We specialize in the fields of reactor physics calculations and measurements, reactor core monitoring, shielding evaluations, criticality evaluations, and custom software applications.

The President is Charles Rombough who has over 35 years experience in nuclear analysis and software development. Our associate is Steve Martonak who specializes in mathematical modeling of physical systems and computer programming. We have also teamed with Dale Lancaster of NuclearConsultants.com to expand our expertise into other areas.

CTR Technical Services, Inc.
950 Sugarloaf Road
Manitou Springs, CO 80829

Tele: 719 - 685-3805
Email: ctr@ctr-tech.com

List of Clients

ADTECHS Corporation
Alief Alamo Bank
Arizona Public Service Corporation
Arkansas Power & Light Company
Bechtel SAIC Corporation
Beijing Institute of Nuclear Engineering
CP&L Progress Energy
Consumers Power Company
Duke Power Company
E G & G
Environmental Measurements Lab
First Energy Corporation
Florida Power & Light Company
Florida Power Corporation
Fluor-Daniel Northwest
Framatome ANP
Galaxy Computer Services, Inc.
General Electric Nuclear Energy
Gesellschaft fur Nuklear-Behalter mbH
GPU Nuclear Corporation
Institute for Nuclear Energy Research
Korean Electric Power Research Institute
Korea Nuclear Engineering Services Company
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Novatech
Nuclear Management Company
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Omaha Public Power District
Sacramento Municipal Utility District
Scientific Application International
TRW Environmental Safety Systems
Westinghouse Electric Company
Westinghouse Hanford Company
Yankee Atomic Electric Company

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