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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.
Martin S. Spergel, Otto W. Lazareth
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 65 | Number 3 | March 1978 | Pages 558-560
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE78-A27189
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
To calculate the neutron kinetic energy release parameters (kerma factors) for an element consisting of several isotopes, it is necessary to use separate neutron cross-section and radioactive decay data for each isotope. In the case of chlorine, cross sections for natural chlorine are available, but cross sections for the individual isotopes are not. Kerma factors for chlorine were calculated using natural chlorine cross sections and weighting the contribution of each isotope to the decay data, using the fractional contribution as a variable parameter. The kerma factors calculated at particular neutron energies are found to be sensitive to this parameter and dependent on that energy. The purpose of this Note is to encourage experimental determination of the relevant neutron cross sections of isotopically pure samples of chlorine.