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Division Spotlight
Radiation Protection & Shielding
The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
Standards Program
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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Latest News
Can hydrogen be the transportation fuel in an otherwise nuclear economy?
Let’s face it: The global economy should be powered primarily by nuclear power. And it probably will by the end of this century, with a still-significant assist from renewables and hydro. Once nuclear systems are dominant, the costs come down to where gas is now; and when carbon emissions are reduced to a small portion of their present state, it will become obvious that most other sources are only good in niche settings. I mean, why use small modular reactors to load-follow when they can just produce that power instead of buffering it?
C. Theis, D. Forkel-Wirth, D. Lacarrère, S. Roesler, H. Vincke
Nuclear Technology | Volume 168 | Number 3 | December 2009 | Pages 713-718
Accelerators | Special Issue on the 11th International Conference on Radiation Shielding and the 15th Topical Meeting of the Radiation Protection and Shielding Division (PART 3) / Radiation Protection | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A9295
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Operating a high-energy accelerator like the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) requires a state-of-the-art monitoring system for radiation protection. In the vicinity of the accelerator as well as in the accessible areas behind thick shielding, a unique mixed radiation environment is encountered that consists of different particle types with energies ranging from fractions of electron volt up to several giga-electron-volts. Consequently, the correct assessment of ambient dose equivalent poses a challenging task and requires appropriate field-specific calibration methods, in particular as no adequate calibration sources exist. This circumstance motivated the development of a more accurate field calibration method for the LHC, based on benchmarked FLUKA Monte Carlo simulations. The method of obtaining such field calibration coefficients for IG5 high-pressure ionization chambers is exemplified in a case study for the LHCb experiment. Comparing these factors to calibration source-based values shows over- or underestimation of the actual dose by the source-based coefficient, depending on the location of the monitor.