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.
R. S. May, J. M. Sorensen, R. E. Engel
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 103 | Number 1 | September 1989 | Pages 81-93
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE89-A23662
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Plant transient calculations for reactor accidents and operational transient events must be performed and evaluated despite uncertainties in input data, empirical correlations, modeling assumptions, and evaluation criteria. The use of best-estimate analysis in conjunction with systematic evaluation of uncertainties provides an alternative to bounding analyses that may introduce unnecessarily large conservatisms. A methodology has been developed that combines established techniques for statistical analysis to deal with a general class of problems having uncertainties both in the evaluation criterion and the modeling parameters. Response surface and Monte Carlo sampling methods are used to determine the probability density function of the key output variable. This function is in turn combined with a probabilistic form of the evaluation criterion to estimate the probability that the criterion may be violated. The methodology is applied to an evaluation of the likelihood that high-pressure safety valves would be challenged by increasing pressure transient events in a boiling water reactor. Plant transient results are obtained from RETRAN-02 calculations, and safety valve characteristics are obtained from test data.