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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.
James E. O'Brien
Nuclear Technology | Volume 178 | Number 1 | April 2012 | Pages 55-65
Technical Paper | Safety and Technology of Nuclear Hydrogen Production, Control, and Management / Nuclear Hydrogen Production | doi.org/10.13182/NT12-A13547
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Nuclear energy has the potential to exert a major positive impact on energy security and climate change by coupling it to the transportation sector, primarily through hydrogen production. In the short term, this coupling will provide carbon-free hydrogen for upgrading increasingly lower-quality petroleum resources such as oil sands, offsetting carbon emissions associated with steam methane reforming. In the intermediate term, nuclear hydrogen will be needed for large-scale production of infrastructure-compatible synthetic liquid fuels. In the long term, there is great potential for the use of hydrogen as a direct vehicle fuel, most likely in the form of light-duty pluggable hybrid hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (HFCVs). This paper presents a review of the potential benefits of large-scale nuclear hydrogen production for energy security (i.e., displacing imported petroleum) and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Life-cycle benefits of nuclear energy in this context are presented, with reference to recent major publications on this topic. The status of U.S. and international nuclear hydrogen research programs is discussed. Industry progress toward consumer-grade HFCVs is also examined.