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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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.”
H. Zhang, A. Ying, M. Abdou
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 64 | Number 3 | September 2013 | Pages 651-656
Test Blanket, Fuel Cycle, and Breeding | 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/FST12-579
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A SiC-based flow channel insert (FCI) is used as an electrical and thermal insulator in the Dual Coolant Lead Lithium (DCLL) blanket. To reduce the stress of the FCI structural material, the pressure equalization slot (PES) is implemented in the FCI wall. However, the PES affects the tritium transfer behavior and loss rate. Therefore it is important to examine the tritium loss rate and ensure it remains below an allowable limit. In the present study, we analyze tritium transport and quantify the tritium loss rate in a front duct of the DCLL-type outboard blanket where PbLi moves poloidally. Three types of poloidal ducts have been considered: one without the PES, one with the PES in the wall parallel to the magnetic field and one with the PES in the wall perpendicular to the magnetic field. Tritium concentration fields are obtained by solving a fully 3-D problem with appropriate boundary conditions at various interfaces. Results show a high tritium concentration at the location of reversed flow when a PES was located in the wall parallel to the field. Furthermore, when any PES was introduced, the PES changed the velocity profiles and thus changed the tritium concentrations in the core and gaps, which increases the tritium losses from 1.244% to 1.413% under the calculation conditions.