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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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Deep Space: The new frontier of radiation controls
In commercial nuclear power, there has always been a deliberate tension between the regulator and the utility owner. The regulator fundamentally exists to protect the worker, and the utility, to make a profit. It is a win-win balance.
From the U.S. nuclear industry has emerged a brilliantly successful occupational nuclear safety record—largely the result of an ALARA (as low as reasonably achievable) process that has driven exposure rates down to what only a decade ago would have been considered unthinkable. In the U.S. nuclear industry, the system has accomplished an excellent, nearly seamless process that succeeds to the benefit of both employee and utility owner.
H. E. Stevens
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 4 | Number 3 | September 1958 | Pages 373-385
Symposium on Reactor Control Materials | doi.org/10.13182/NSE58-A25535
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Nuclear factors affecting the effectiveness of control rod materials for power reactors with a thermal or near thermal neutron spectrum are surveyed. The principal elements and isotopes which qualify as neutron absorbers are compared and physical requirements such as rod thickness, surface density, and weight ratios are stated. The importance of epithermal absorption and the nuclear effects of burnup due to long neutron exposure in power reactors are shown. The characteristics of absorption isotope chains such as europium are described and finally, the deleterious effects of cladding and scattering cross section of poison diluents on control effectiveness are shown.
