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2026 Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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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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Modernizing I&C for operations and maintenance, one phase at a time
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.
Scott M. Whitney, Steven Biegalski, Bruce Buchholz
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 157 | Number 2 | October 2007 | Pages 200-209
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE07-A2722
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An extensive study was conducted to determine isotopic ratios of nuclides in spent fuel that may be utilized to reveal historical characteristics of a nuclear reactor cycle. This forensic information is important to determine the origin of unknown nuclear waste. The distribution of isotopes in waste products provides information about a nuclear fuel cycle, even when the isotopes of uranium and plutonium are removed through chemical processing. Several different reactor cycles of the pressurized water reactor, boiling water reactor, Canada deuterium uranium reactor, and liquid-metal fast breeder reactor were simulated for this work with the ORIGEN-ARP and ORIGEN2.2 codes. The spent-fuel nuclide concentrations of these reactors were analyzed to find the most informative isotopic ratios indicative of irradiation cycle length and reactor design. Special focus was given to long-lived and stable fission products that would be present many years after their creation. For such nuclides, mass spectrometry analysis methods often have better detection limits than classic gamma-ray spectroscopy. The isotopic ratios 151Sm/146Sm, 149Sm/146Sm, and 244Cm/246Cm were found to be good indicators of fuel cycle length and are well suited for analysis by accelerator mass spectroscopy.