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2026 Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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Nuclear power’s new rule book: Managing uncertainty in efficiency, safety, and independence
The U.S. nuclear industry is standing at its most volatile regulatory moment yet—one that will shape the trajectory and the safety of the industry for decades to come. Recent judicial, legislative, and executive actions are rewriting the rules governing the licensing and regulation of nuclear power reactors. Although these changes are intended to promote and accelerate the deployment of new nuclear energy technologies, the collision of multiple legal shifts—occurring simultaneously and intersecting with profound technological uncertainties—is overwhelming the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and threatening to destabilize investor and industry expectations.
Bernd Sohnius, Rudolf Anton, Erwin Wehner, Frank-Dietrich Heidt, Rudolf Rabenstein
Nuclear Technology | Volume 99 | Number 2 | August 1992 | Pages 213-221
Technical Paper | Nuclear Fuel Cycle | doi.org/10.13182/NT92-A34691
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A method to determine the release of low activities through natural air exchange from a decommissioned fuel fabrication plant is described. The method has been applied to the buildings of the NUKEM-A plant and was important in obtaining governmental authorization for the plant decommissioning. The air exchange rate in the NUKEM-A plant was measured by using a tracer gas method. For that purpose, N2O as inert gas was injected into representative rooms, and the decrease of concentration caused by exfiltration processes was measured by an infrared gas analyzer as a function of time. The knowledge of this decay curve allows the calculation of low activities, which may be released into the environment by the natural air exchange. The activity is determined according to the German radiation protection regulation. From this, an air exchange rate of ∼25 h−1 would be equivalent to 10% of the tolerable activity emission. The measured exchange rates are less than ∼0.5 h−1. This results—at least for the meteorological conditions during the measurement period—in a significantly lower activity release than that permitted. The measuring method was successfully performed and can be recommended for similar investigations.