ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 15–18, 2026
Phoenix, AZ|Arizona Grand Resort & Spa
Latest Magazine Issues
Sep 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
October 2026
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Westinghouse, Nordion, and PSEG team up to produce Co‑60 in the United States
This past January, Westinghouse Electric Company, Nordion, and PSEG Nuclear formalized agreements to implement newly developed cobalt-60 production technology at Units 1 and 2 of PSEG’s Salem nuclear power plant in New Jersey, with the Co-60 to be supplied to Nordion. Through an ongoing joint initiative, the companies aim to harness U.S. pressurized water reactors to produce a key medical isotope and build the first commercial-scale Co-60 production platform in the United States.
G. Montet, G. Hennig, A. Kurs
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 1 | Number 1 | March 1956 | Pages 33-52
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE56-A17656
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The distribution of displaced carbon atoms in irradiated graphite has been studied with a radioactive tracer technique. Radiation-damaged graphite containing radioactive displaced carbon (C11) atoms was prepared by cyclotron or betatron irradiation. After partial annealing, the distribution of the C11 was determined by controlled oxidation and counting of CO2 gas samples. Experiments on various types of weakly irradiated graphite indicate that a very small fraction of the displaced atoms are driven to particle surfaces during the annealing process, the fraction being higher for natural graphite than for artificial graphite and varying inversely with graphite particle size. Experimental conditions were varied to determine their effects on the distribution of the disaplaced atoms. Data obtained indicate that very little reintegration of displaced atoms occurs during short neutron bombardments at room temperature, that about 80% of the atoms reintegrate into vacancies during annealing below 400°C and that the remainder coalesce into complexes, and that large scale motion of the complexes begins at 400°C and ceases at approximately 1000°C. At this latter temperature the complexes appear to reach their final positions; however, they are relatively loosely bound and integrate progressively at these sites until they become indistinguishable from lattice atoms near 1700°C. Vacancies resulting from prior irradiation were found by tracer experiments to be effective traps for displaced atoms so that, during annealing of subsequent damage, the fraction that reaches the particle surfaces decreases rapidly with bombardment.