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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Ho Nieh nominated to the NRC
Nieh
President Trump recently nominated Ho Nieh for the role of commissioner in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission through the remainder of a term that will expire June 30, 2029.
Nieh has been the vice president of regulatory affairs at Southern Nuclear since 2021, though he is currently working as a loaned executive at the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations, where he has been for more than a year.
Nieh’s experience: Nieh started his career at the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, where he worked primarily as a nuclear plant engineer and contributed as a civilian instructor in the U.S. Navy’s Nuclear Power Program.
From there, he joined the NRC in 1997 as a project engineer. In more than 19 years of service at the organization, he served in a variety of key leadership roles, including division director of Reactor Projects, division director of Inspection and Regional Support, and director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
B. Goel
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 69 | Number 1 | January 1979 | Pages 99-104
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE79-A21291
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
It is well established that helium formed in stainless steel by various (n,α) processes has a pronounced effect on its mechanical and dimensional properties. The anomalous production of helium in nickel-based alloys is known to take place via the two-step process: 58Ni(n,γ)59Ni(n,α)56Fe. For thermal neutrons, the 59Ni(n,α)56Fe cross section used to calculate the helium production differs strongly from the value obtained by the direct measurements of this cross section. In this Note, this discrepancy is discussed, and a value of 12.5 ± 1 b based on direct measurements is recommended for future calculations. For fast neutrons, the contribution due to the two-step process has been ignored in the past. It is demonstrated that this contribution is substantial, and it gains in importance as the neutron fluence increases. It is further shown that the usual practice to relate helium production data to thermal- and fast-neutron fluence is inadequate. The details of the neutron spectrum and the cross section are necessary to reliably predict the helium production rate.
