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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.”
M. Zucchetti, F. Bombarda, B. Coppi, Z. S. Hartwig
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 64 | Number 3 | September 2013 | Pages 493-497
DEMO and Next-Step Facilities | Proceedings of the Twentieth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (TOFE-2012) (Part 2) Nashville, Tennessee, August 27-31, 2012 | doi.org/10.13182/FST13-A19141
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An Ignitor-like tokamak that is compact, high field, and high density device, could make full use of the its intense neutron flux, without reaching ignition as a source of neutrons for materials testing in support of a fission-fusion hybrid device. The main features of this High Field Neutron Source Facility, which would have about 50% more plasma volume than Ignitor, are illustrated and the R&D required in order to achieve relevant dpa quantities in test materials are discussed. Several full-power months of operation are sufficient to obtain relevant radiation damage values in terms of dpa, and a scoping study of shielding the magnetic insulators to reduce radiation damage has been performed.
