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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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Latest News
INL makes a case for eliminating ALARA and setting higher dose limits
A report just released by Idaho National Laboratory reviews decades of radiation protection standards and research on the health effects of low-dose radiation and recommends that the current U.S. annual occupational dose limit of 5,000 mrem be maintained without applying ALARA—the “as low as reasonably achievable” regulatory concept first introduced in 1971—below that threshold.
Noting that epidemiological studies “have consistently failed to demonstrate statistically significant health effects at doses below 10,000 mrem delivered at low dose rates,” the report also recommends “future consideration of increasing this limit to 10,000 mrem/year with appropriate cumulative-dose constraints.”
Technical Session|Panel|Sponsored by FCWMD
Monday, November 16, 2020|1:00–3:10PM EST
Session Chair:
Kaushik Banerjee
Session Organizer:
Alternate Chair:
Christina Leggett
Staff Producer:
Eileen Cullen (American Nuclear Society)
Spent nuclear fuel (SNF) cask systems are evaluated for approved contents that provide bounding fuel characteristics (design-basis) such as fuel type, initial enrichment, and discharge burnup. The bounding fuel characteristics establish the upper limits of the cask's safety parameters (e.g., dose rates). Due to the wide variation in SNF assembly burnup values and discharge dates, cask systems are loaded with assemblies that satisfy the bounding fuel characteristics with some amount of uncredited safety margin. In this session, we will discuss (1) design-basis and as-loaded analysis approaches and (2) various applications of uncredited safety margins that can be quantified by as-loaded analyses. The as-loaded analysis approach has the potential to significantly improve SNF management and streamline the regulatory review process.
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