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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Latest News
No impact from Savannah River radioactive wasps
The news is abuzz with recent news stories about four radioactive wasp nests found at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The site has been undergoing cleanup operations since the 1990s related to the production of plutonium and tritium for defense purposes during the Cold War. Cleanup activities are expected to continue into the 2060s.
R. A. Lillie, B. L. Broadhead, J. V. Pace III, D. G. Cacuci
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 100 | Number 2 | October 1988 | Pages 105-124
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE88-A29020
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Uncertainty estimates and cross correlations by range/survivor have been calculated for the Hiroshima and Nagasaki free-in-air (FIA) tissue kerma obtained from two-dimensional air/ground transport calculations. The uncertainties due to modeling parameter and basic nuclear transport data uncertainties were calculated for 700-, 1000-, and 1500-m ground ranges. Only the FIA tissue kerma due to initial radiation was treated in the analysis; the uncertainties associated with terrain and building shielding and phantom attenuation were not considered in this study. Uncertainties of ∼20% were obtained for the prompt neutron and secondary gamma kerma and 30% for the prompt gamma kerma at both cities. The uncertainties on the total prompt kerma at Hiroshima and Nagasaki are ∼18 and 15%, respectively. The estimated uncertainties vary only slightly by ground range and are fairly highly correlated. The total prompt kerma uncertainties are dominated by the secondary gamma uncertainties, which in turn are dominated by the modeling parameter uncertainties, particularly those associated with the weapon yield and radiation sources.