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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.
W. H. Huang, T. W. Krause, B. J. Lewis
Nuclear Technology | Volume 176 | Number 3 | December 2011 | Pages 452-461
Technical Note | Radiation Measurements and General Instrumentation | doi.org/10.13182/NT11-A13320
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In the rare occurrence of a fuel failure during normal operation, the primary coolant can enter the element. Visual techniques are normally used for the postirradiation inspection of discharged CANadian Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) fuel bundles to help identify such failures. In this work, a more sensitive method, based on underwater angled-beam ultrasonic inspection, is investigated under laboratory conditions. Only nonirradiated fuel elements were tested. Identification is possible with the introduction of water into the fuel element, which acts as a couplant for sound waves, thereby providing for a clear demarcation of the fuel pellets within the element in observed scans. This study therefore demonstrates that the inspection of the outer-ring (i.e., higher-powered) elements in the complex fuel bundle structure is possible.
