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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.
Anil Kumar, Mahadeva Srinivasan
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 93 | Number 3 | July 1986 | Pages 240-247
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE86-A17753
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A new equation, called the neutron multiplicity equation (NME), has been derived starting from basic physics principles. Neutron multiplicity υ is defined as the integral number of neutrons leaking from a neutron multiplying system for a source neutron introduced into it. Probability distribution of neutron multiplicities (PDNMs) gives the probability of leakage of neutrons as a function of their multiplicity v. The PDNM is directly measurable through statistical correlation techniques. In a specific application, the NME has been solved for PDNM as a function of v for 9Be spheres of varying radii and driven by a centrally located 14-MeV deuterium-tritium neutron source. The potential of NME for sensitivity analysis is demonstrated through a particular modification of secondary neutron transfer cross sections of 9Be. It turns out that PDNM is very sensitive, even as the “average” neutron leakage is practically insensitive to it.