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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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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Deep Space: The new frontier of radiation controls
In commercial nuclear power, there has always been a deliberate tension between the regulator and the utility owner. The regulator fundamentally exists to protect the worker, and the utility, to make a profit. It is a win-win balance.
From the U.S. nuclear industry has emerged a brilliantly successful occupational nuclear safety record—largely the result of an ALARA (as low as reasonably achievable) process that has driven exposure rates down to what only a decade ago would have been considered unthinkable. In the U.S. nuclear industry, the system has accomplished an excellent, nearly seamless process that succeeds to the benefit of both employee and utility owner.
M. M. R. Williams
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 183 | Number 1 | May 2016 | Pages 116-125
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE15-62
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The experimental and theoretical results of Authier et al. on the fast burst reactor Caliban have been re-analysed using the Gamma probability distribution function (pdf). The Gamma pdf requires only the mean and variance of the accumulated counts to fully define it. Equations for the mean value and variance of the neutron, precursor and count rate distributions have been developed and solved via the forward form of the probability generating function. We have found excellent agreement, to within experimental error, with the experimental results for the wait time and its variance. In addition, the values of the cumulative pdf obtained via the Gamma pdf are in good agreement with those reported by Authier et al. who used more accurate methods.
