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Nuclear Criticality Safety
NCSD provides communication among nuclear criticality safety professionals through the development of standards, the evolution of training methods and materials, the presentation of technical data and procedures, and the creation of specialty publications. In these ways, the division furthers the exchange of technical information on nuclear criticality safety with the ultimate goal of promoting the safe handling of fissionable materials outside reactors.
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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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Latest News
Take steps on SNF and HLW disposal
Matt Bowen
With a new administration and Congress, it is time once again to ponder what will happen—if anything—on U.S. spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste management policy over the next few years. One element of the forthcoming discussion seems clear: The executive and legislative branches are eager to talk about recycling commercial SNF. Whatever the merits of doing so, it does not obviate the need for one or more facilities for disposal of remaining long-lived radionuclides. For that reason, making progress on U.S. disposal capabilities remains urgent, lest the associated radionuclide inventories simply be left for future generations to deal with.
In March, Rick Perry, who was secretary of energy during President Trump’s first administration, observed that during his tenure at the Department of Energy it became clear to him that any plan to move SNF “required some practical consent of the receiving state and local community.”1
R.A. Surette, M.J. Wood
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 28 | Number 3 | October 1995 | Pages 957-963
Tritium Safety | Proceedings of the Fifth Topical Meeting on Tritium Technology in Fission, Fusion, and Isotopic Applications Belgirate, Italy May 28-June 3, 1995 | doi.org/10.13182/FST95-A30529
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
We have investigated various commercially available tritium-surface contamination monitors along with different swipe media and techniques for direct and indirect (swipe) monitoring of contaminated surfaces. The monitors tested were the Berthold LB1210 with both a LB6255 windowless detector and a BZ-200 XK-P xenon counter, a PC-55 windowless proportional counter from Nuclear Measurement Corporation, a Whitlock VSC 5000 surface-contamination monitor, and the Hurfurt “Microcont” surface monitor. A prototype E-perm® electret surface contamination monitor and MeltiLex™, a wax-based plastic scintillant were also evaluated for measuring tritium-surface contamination. None of the methods or instruments evaluated were more sensitive than the swipe/liquid-scintillation counting (LSC) method. Samples measured with open-window proportional counters were, in general, less than half as sensitive, but had the advantages of having the results available almost immediately and requiring minimal sample preparation. Instruments that measure surface contamination directly are sensitive and convenient but the measurement includes some nonremovable component that would not contribute to a person's dose. Instruments that use a detector with any type of window are too insensitive for routine workplace-surface monitoring.
