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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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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Fusion Science and Technology
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.”
Soren Harrison et al.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 64 | Number 2 | August 2013 | Pages 277-281
Divertor and High-Heat-Flux Components | Proceedings of the Twentieth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (TOFE-2012) (Part 1), Nashville, Tennessee, August 27-31, 2012 | doi.org/10.13182/FST13-A18089
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Operational requirements and research considerations make a high-temperature, toroidally continuous outer divertor an important upgrade to the Alcator C-Mod tokamak. Leading edge melting of tiles, non-uniform heat loads, large electromagnetic forces, and localized impurity sources limit the performance of bulk plasmas. These issues can be addressed by the installation of a well-aligned, toroidally continuous outer divertor. Additionally, future long pulse operation will cause the temperature of the outer divertor to reach bulk temperatures as high as 500 - 600 °C. This future operational requirement combined with the strong temperature dependence of plasma surface interactions (especially fuel retention), makes a controllable, high-temperature outer divertor desirable and necessary. The motivation, criteria, design, and R&D for the upgrade are discussed below.
