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.
Hangbok Choi
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 137 | Number 1 | January 2001 | Pages 38-51
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE01-A2174
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The fuel composition heterogeneity effect on reactor performance parameters was assessed by refueling simulations for three DUPIC fuel options of fuel composition heterogeneity control: fissile content adjustment, reactivity control by slightly enriched and depleted uranium, and reactivity control by natural uranium. For each DUPIC fuel option, the simulations were performed using 30 heterogeneous fuel types, which were determined by the agglomerative hierarchical clustering method. The heterogeneity effect was considered during the refueling simulation by randomly selecting fuel types for the refueling operation. The refueling simulations of the heterogeneous core have shown that the key performance parameters, such as the maximum channel power (MCP), maximum bundle power (MBP), and channel power peaking factor (CPPF), are close to those of the core that has a single fuel type. For the three DUPIC fuel options, the uncertainties of MCP, MBP, and CPPF due to the fuel composition heterogeneity are <0.6, 1.5, and 0.8%, respectively. This study has shown that the three DUPIC fuel options reduce the composition heterogeneity effectively, and the zone power control system has a sufficient margin to adjust the perturbations caused by fuel composition heterogeneity.