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NRC proposes changes to its rules on nuclear materials
In response to Executive Order 14300, “Ordering the Reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,” the NRC is proposing sweeping changes to its rules governing the use of nuclear materials that are widely used in industry, medicine, and research. The changes would amend NRC regulations for the licensing of nuclear byproduct material, some source material, and some special nuclear material.
As published in the May 18 Federal Register, the NRC is seeking public comment on this proposed rule and draft interim guidance until July 2.
M. Taube
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 61 | Number 2 | October 1976 | Pages 212-221
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE76-A27354
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The fission products 90Sr and 137Cs produced by fission reactors of 30 GW(th) can be transmutated into stable nuclides by neutron irradiation with a thermal flux of 2 × 1016 n cm−2 s−1. The rates of transmutation are 15 and 3.3 times greater, respectively, than that of spontaneous beta decay. The transmutation would take place in a central thermalized region of a high-flux fast burner reactor of 7 GW(th). In the case where the power reactors of 23 GW(th) are breeders with a high breeding gain of G = 0.38, the total system, inclusive of the high-flux burner, remains a breeding system, with Gtotal = 0.09. Details of the neutronics calculations and simplified thermohydraulics are given. The high-flux burner is fueled with a molten salt of chlorides of plutonium and sodium with a power density of 10 kW cm−3. The “self-liquidation” of such a system is discussed.