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2026 Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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The two reactors at Dominion Energy’s Surry plant are among the oldest in the U.S. nuclear fleet. Yet when the plant celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2023, staff could raise a toast to the future. Surry was one of the first plants to file a subsequent license renewal (SLR) application, and in May 2021, it became official: the plant was licensed to operate for a full 80 years, extending its reactors’ lifespans into 2052 and 2053.
Hiroaki Ogawa, Kiyoshi Kiuchi
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 152 | Number 2 | February 2006 | Pages 236-241
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE06-A2578
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Heavy rare gases like Xe have the highest abundance as fission products formed with dependence on the burnup of nuclear fuels. The interaction between heavy rare gases and low-energy electrons excited by the irradiation effect is very important for understanding the gas release mechanism and for developing the collecting method of radioactive fission product gases. Two types of plasma-testing apparatuses for the opened and closed low-energy plasmas were arranged using the radio frequency exciting source. The excitation behavior was evaluated by measuring the density and the temperature of the excited electrons. The electron density in the opened plasma increased with increase of the ionization energy of each rare gas. However, the electron density in the closed plasma of heavy rare gases (Ar, Kr, and Xe) was enhanced nearly a thousand times higher than that of light rare gases (Ne and He). The difference was interpreted as based on the cross section for energy transfer to the low-energy electron formed by the multisputtering effect on wall surfaces in the closed plasma.