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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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Deep Space: The new frontier of radiation controls
In commercial nuclear power, there has always been a deliberate tension between the regulator and the utility owner. The regulator fundamentally exists to protect the worker, and the utility, to make a profit. It is a win-win balance.
From the U.S. nuclear industry has emerged a brilliantly successful occupational nuclear safety record—largely the result of an ALARA (as low as reasonably achievable) process that has driven exposure rates down to what only a decade ago would have been considered unthinkable. In the U.S. nuclear industry, the system has accomplished an excellent, nearly seamless process that succeeds to the benefit of both employee and utility owner.
Technical Session|Sponsored by IRD
Monday, June 12, 2023|3:15–5:00PM EDT|Marriott 9
Session Chair:
Brenden J. Heidrich
Session Organizer:
Alternate Chair:
Lei R. Cao
The DRIFT series of experiments at Idaho National Laboratory’s TREAT transient testing facility explored pellet cracking behavior in ceramic UO2 fuel pellets at LWR-relevant conditions to create data to support modeling and simulation of fuel performance. This session will march through the irradiation testing process to highlight the steps required to turn a hypothesis into an irradiation test that can produce usable data. The DRIFT-UO2 experiment at TREAT is based on the IRP-16-10905 - Heng Ben (PITT), Mary Lou Dunzig-Gougar (ISU), “Transient Reactor (TREAT) Experiments to Validate MBM Fuel Performance Simulations” https://neup.inl.gov/SiteAssets/FY%202016%20Abstracts/IRP/IRP-16-10905_TechnicalAbstract_2016CFAAbstract10905.pdf Benjamin Spencer, et al., “Dry in-pile fracture test (DRIFT) for separate-effects validation of ceramic fuel fracture models,” Journal of Nuclear Materials, 568 (2022), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2022.153816
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Structure and Process of Managing the UO2 Dry In-Pile Fracture Test Irradiation Experiment
3:15–3:35PM EDT
Leigh A. Astle (INL), Trevor J. Smuin (INL)
Paper
Neutronics Programmatic and Safety Evaluation of the DRIFT Experiment in TREAT
3:35–3:55PM EDT
Connie M. Hill (INL)
Research Objectives and Findings from the DRIFT Experiments
3:55–4:15PM EDT
Benjamin Spencer (INL), Nicolas E. Woolstenhulme (INL), Jason L. Schulthess (INL), Austin D. Fleming (INL)
Experiment Safety Analysis Process for the DRIFT Irradiation Experiment at TREAT
4:15–4:35PM EDT
Sterling S. Morrill (INL)
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