One of the most important emerging pollutants is pharmaceutical active compounds, which may be responsible, for example, for ecotoxicological changes and microbiological resistance. Wastewater treatment plants are not adequately equipped to remove all of the emerging pollutants contained in the wastewater. The ultrafiltration process has been proven to be effective in traditional wastewater treatment, so it is important to assess the performance of such a technique in the partial elimination of pharmaceutical compounds to avoid contamination. In this work, an assessment of ultrafiltration process operating conditions for eliminating six pharmaceutical compounds: Ibuprofen, Acetaminophen, Naproxen, Diclofenac, Caffeine, and trimethoprim, present in different types of water is performed. Experimental design is a systematic and structured approach to conducting experiments, and its application can significantly improve the study of membrane technology, reducing the number of assays necessary to obtain meaningful results. The statistical principles application ensures that the results obtained are reliable and representative of the true effects of the variables being studied. Its application helps to obtain valid conclusions from the data and provides a solid basis for making decisions or recommendations regarding the tests and variables to take into account. Membrane processes can involve complex interactions between several factors. Experimental design helps to identify and understand these interactions, allowing researchers to discern the combined effects of different variables. This is crucial to accurately predict and optimize membrane performance. In this work, ANOVA analysis has been carried out in order to determine the influence of membrane cut-off, solution pH, and feed concentration, as well as their interactions, in permeate flux and the rejection index. The results obtained show similar behavior for Ibuprofen, Naproxen, Diclofenac, and Trimethoprim, being the pH the most important factor. However, no significant factors were found for the acetaminophen and the Caffeine.

The nuclear industry is currently facing a significant demand for well-trained personnel. Due to the high market demand, it is essential to raise awareness among new target groups, including high school pupils and (pre-service) STEM teachers, about the potential and opportunities of pursuing a nuclear career. With this in mind, a new strategic partnership has been established under the Erasmus+ project 'BRAVER' (Blended and Remote teaching Activities supported by Virtual rEality for Radiation sciences). Within this 2-year project, international staff, and students from 7 partners of the CHERNE (Cooperation of Higher Education on Radiological and Nuclear Engineering) network collaborate with industry, regulatory and research institutes in developing educational virtual tools (VR and virtual online escape rooms) for nuclear sciences and engineering. The project aims to develop blended international training programs that incorporate technical, generic, and networking skills for both students and professors. This initiative can serve as a model for other scientific fields, extending its benefits to students and educators across different disciplines.

Best-Estimate Plus Uncertainty (BEPU) nuclear safety analysis is an approach widely used in the field of nuclear engineering and reactor safety assessment. It aims to provide a more realistic assessment of reactor safety by considering a combination of best-estimate models and the quantification of the uncertainty of the input and code data. The Spanish research community in collaboration with the regulatory body and the industry has substantially contributed to the development and application of BEPU methodologies by taking an active role in the international joint efforts. The present article provides an overview of the key contributions performed by Spanish institutions. Many of the activities performed in BEPU are dedicated to the thermal-hydraulics field where Spanish researchers have contributed to both the development of forward and inverse uncertainty propagation methods. On the other hand, BEPU related works have also been performed in several other disciplines such as neutron-kinetics, fuel thermo-mechanics, computational fluid dynamics, containment, severe accident and in coupled multi-physics applications. All these contributions are first summarized to set the framework for a final section that provides the future challenges that lay ahead in the upcoming years in relation to the implementation of BEPU methods.

La protección radiológica es una actividad multidisciplinar que tiene como finalidad la protección de las personas y del medio ambiente contra los efectos nocivos de la exposición a radiaciones ionizantes (CSN 2023). Esta actividad está relacionada con varios de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS) de la Agenda 2030, como el ODS 3 (salud y bienestar), el ODS 7 (energía asequible y no contaminante), el ODS 9 (industria, innovación e infraestructura) y el ODS 13 (acción por el clima)(IAEA 2023). En este contexto, es importante que el estudiantado del Máster Universitario en Seguridad Nuclear y Protección Radiológica de la Universitat Politècnica de València, adquiera las competencias necesarias para contribuir al cumplimiento de los ODS desde su ámbito profesional. En esta ponencia se presenta la experiencia que se está llevando a cabo en la asignatura de Protección Radiológica en Instalaciones Radiactivas y Nucleares, del citado máster, en la que se ha utilizado una metodología activa para plantear una serie de casos prácticos y proyectos abordando también alguno de los ODS. Se describen los objetivos, el diseño, evaluación, así como los resultados obtenidos y las dificultades encontradas. Se concluye que esta experiencia ha sido positiva tanto para el aprendizaje del estudiantado como para el desarrollo de su conciencia social y ambiental.

To reach a Net Zero Emission scenario, on 1st January 2022 the European Union (EU) declared nuclear and gas as transitional activities under strict safety conditions. A central challenge is that many nuclear reactors in operation are close to or have reached their design life, so that, it is required to demonstrate the influence of equipment ageing on plant reliability will be kept under control in the plan extended lifetime. In this work a three-step methodology is proposed to obtain the time instants at which the failure rate behaviour changes (break points) and the most appropriate age-dependant reliability model to explicitly include the effects of ageing and maintenance. The methodology requires the reliability parameters estimation at each phase of the plant equipment lifetime, what is carried out by using the available Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) historical data, which is quite scarce. The methodology is applied to a motor operated valve of a NPP safety system. The results demonstrate the capability of the approach proposed to estimate and predict the component reliability in the plant extended lifetime depending on the maintenance policy implemented, being necessary to estimate an accurate age-dependant reliability model to support the decision-making process on equipment ageing management.

En 2015, las Naciones Unidas aprobaron la Agenda 2030 sobre desarrollo sostenible, que cuenta con 17 Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS) en muy diversos ámbitos. Dentro de este contexto, las Universidades deberían incorporar los ODS en todos los ámbitos de su actividad, ya que éstas juegan un papel primordial como agentes transformadores de la sociedad en su conjunto. Consciente de ello, la Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales (ETSII) de la Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), en España, está actualmente implementando un Proyecto de Innovación y Mejora Educativa (PIME-I/2021/1790) que pretende desarrollar acciones que contribuyan a la consecución de los ODS en el ámbito docente.En el presente curso 2021-22, se está realizando el diagnóstico de la situación actual de desarrollo de los ODS a través de la docencia de las titulaciones impartidas en la ETSII. Una de las acciones llevadas a cabo es la revisión de las Guías Docentes de las asignaturas, con el doble objetivo de identificar tanto las actividades realizadas actualmente, como el potencial de trabajo en ODS de cada asignatura. En este trabajo se presentan los resultados de dicha revisión en las asignaturas troncales y obligatorias de las titulaciones de Grado en Ingeniería de la Energía, y del Máster Universitario en Tecnología Energética para el Desarrollo Sostenible.

En las normas y directrices para el aseguramiento de la calidad en el Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior (EEES), se establece que una de las claves para combinar el conocimiento y las habilidades de los alumnos es la implementación de nuevas metodologías pedagógicas activas. Una de las metodologías de aprendizaje activo más utilizadas y eficaces es el aprendizaje basado en proyectos (PBL). En este trabajo, los proyectos implantados utilizando la metodología PBL están alineados con la Agenda 2030. Esta Agenda para el Desarrollo Sostenible, aprobada en 2015, establece que las universidades deben desempeñar un papel importante en el cumplimiento de esto, teniendo debidamente en cuenta su responsabilidad en relación conla formación, investigación y las relaciones con la sociedad . En esta agenda, se propusieron 17 Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS). Esta ponencia se centra en el Objetivo 7 “Energía limpia y asequible". En el marco de la metodología PBL e integrando los ODS, el objetivo de este trabajo es el desarrollo de proyectos en la asignatura "Energía y Desarrollo Sostenible" del Grado en Ingeniería de la Energía en la Universitat Politècnica de València. Este trabajo presenta la metodología desarrollada, los resultados obtenidos y las conclusiones obtenidas.

This paper contains the fundamentals and a comparison of different alternatives in the context of risk-informed surveillance requirements that consider the full effects of implementing the maintenance rule. A case study is included to demonstrate the performance of the different alternatives, which focus on a motor-operated valve and make use of an Ageing PRA to quantify the effect of component ageing, test and maintenance effectiveness on equipment RAM and its impact on risk. The results show that the alternative that simultaneously harmonises surveillance requirements and maintenance activities provides the best results in terms of RAM and risk in a context of equipment ageing and obsolescence. However, they also show that measures other than simply re-adjusting surveillance testing and maintenance intervals should be explored in case of technical obsolescence, as this has a strong impact on maintenance effectiveness, which may require, for example, an obsolescence management program to be applied.

In this work the fundamentals and application results of an uncertainty analysis of a loss of coolant and loss of cooling accident in a spent fuel pool are presented. The spent fuel pool was modeled with TRACE V5.0 Patch 5 using a VESSEL 3D component in Cartesian coordinates. A more detailed nodalization was necessary as compared with a previous study of the same accident scenario to better develop the uncertainty analysis in the framework of the Best Estimate Plus Uncertainty (BEPU) approach. First, the model was calibrated using Main Yankee spent fuel pool experimental data of temperatures and flows measured in steady state conditions. Using the calibrated model, the analysis of the accident was performed considering uncertainty in boundary conditions and in all the coefficients included in the TRACE uncertainty quantification data module. The figure of merit selected in this work is the time at which the cladding oxidation reaches 0.17 times the cladding thickness before oxidation (CFR 50.46 b2). The uncertainty analysis was performed using Wilks' method and surrogate models. In particular, the Elastic Net surrogate model has demonstrated its potential not only to predict the evolution of the figure of merit in an appropriate way with lower computational effort than the Wilks' method but also its capability to identify the most relevant uncertain parameters, such as the fuel and cladding specific heats, rod internal pressure coefficient, burst temperature coefficient, a group of fluid regime heat transfer coefficients, the cladding metal-water reaction rate coefficient and the cladding tolerance for the average cores. In addition, the surrogate model provides more information of the distribution of the evolution of the figure of merit. The estimations of the 5/95 tolerance limits, both with the Wilks' method and with the surrogate models, are very similar, ranging from 30.432 to 30.461 h.

1 Universitat Poltècnica de València. Departamento de Estadística, Investigación Operativa Aplicadas y Calidad (SPAIN)2 Universitat Poltècnica de València. Departamento de Ingeniería Química y Nuclear (SPAIN)3 Universitat Poltècnica de València. Departamento de Ingeniería Q (SPAIN)

Aim of study: The development of a procedure to calibrate the LEACHM and EU-Rotate_N models for simulating water and nitrogen dynamics in cauliflower crops.Area of study: Calibration was performed using experimental data obtained from measurements in a cauliflower crop sited in Valencia (Spain) region.Material and methods: A procedure based on generalized sensitivity indices for time-dependent outputs was used to determine the most influencing model parameters, in order to reduce the number of parameters to be calibrated and to avoid overparameterization. The most influencing parameters were introduced in an optimization process that uses the experimental measurements of soil water and nitrate content to determine its optimal value and obtain calibrated models.Main results: After this analysis, the most important hydraulic parameters found were the coefficients of Campbell’s equation for the LEACHM model and the soil water content at field capacity and drainage coefficient for the EU-Rotate_N model. For the N cycle, the most influencing parameters were those related with the nitrification, humus mineralization rate and residue decomposition for both models. Both calibrated models provided good simulation of soil water content with an error between 5-7%. However, larger errors in soil-nitrate content simulation were found, mainly in the period corresponding to the crop residues incorporation. The prediction of the calibrated models in a different plot gave error values of about 7-9% for soil water content, but for soil nitrate content errors computed were 34% and 58%.Research highlights: After calibration, both models can be used to optimize the farmer water management and fertilization practices in horticultural crops, although in the N case further studies should be performed.

This study describes a rapid and novelty method for radiostrontium determination in aerosol filters and vegetation based on the use of plastic scintillation resins (PS resin), which combines the separation and measurement preparation into a single step. The optimization of the pre-treatment steps and the use of PS resin allows a simplification of the radiochemistry and a reduction in the time of analysis to 8 h and 12 h for aerosol filters and vegetation, respectively. The limits of detection were on average 0.04 Bq (filter)−1 and 3 Bq (kg-fresh)−1. The method obtained high recoveries (82% on average) and relative bias for total radiostrontium were below 30%. Individual activities of 89Sr and 90Sr were obtained by deconvolution methods.

En el grado de Ingeniería de la Energía, los alumnos pueden cursar las asignaturas de Tecnología Nuclear y Seguridad Nuclear. En ambas asignaturas se estudia el diseño de un reactor nuclear para que la central funcione en condiciones seguras. Para conseguir que los alumnos entiendan el funcionamiento de un reactor nuclear es interesante el uso de modelos matemáticos que reproduzcan tanto la potencia generada como la evolución de otras variables que afectan a la seguridad de la planta. En este trabajo, se presenta un modelo sencillo de reactor de agua a presión que permite observar la evolución temporal de la potencia del reactor y las temperaturas de los componentes más importantes de la planta. Para obtener la potencia generada se hace uso del modelo de cinética puntual, mientras que para el cálculo de las temperaturas del combustible y del refrigerante se utiliza un modelo sencillo de transmisión de calor. De este modo, el problema se formula mediante un sistema de ecuaciones diferenciales ordinarias que se resuelve utilizando métodos numéricos. El desarrollo del modelo permite a los alumnos de Tecnología Nuclear y Seguridad Nuclear comprender la evolución temporal de alguna de las variables de un reactor y darse cuenta de los efectos estabilizantes que los parámetros de la termohidráulica tienen sobre la potencia generada.

In the Bachelor’s degree of Energy Engineering, students can attend to Nuclear Technology and Nuclear Safety courses. Both subjects are focused on the reactor design to assure the nuclear power plant operates in safe conditions. The use of mathematical models to reproduce the power generated and other plant safety variables helps the students to understand the nuclear power reactor operation. In this work, a simple model of a Pressurized Water Reactor that allows to represent the temporal evolution of the reactor power and the temperatures of the most important plant components is presented. The point kinetics model is used to obtain the power generated inside the core, while a simple heat transfer model is used to calculate the fuel and coolant temperatures. In this way, the problem is formulated as a system of ordinary differential equations that is solved using numerical methods. The development of the model allows the students of Nuclear Technology and Nuclear Safety to understand the temporal evolution of some of the reactor variables and to become aware of the stabilization effect of the thermohydraulic parameters over the generated power.