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Radiation Protection & Shielding
The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
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2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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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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Can hydrogen be the transportation fuel in an otherwise nuclear economy?
Let’s face it: The global economy should be powered primarily by nuclear power. And it probably will by the end of this century, with a still-significant assist from renewables and hydro. Once nuclear systems are dominant, the costs come down to where gas is now; and when carbon emissions are reduced to a small portion of their present state, it will become obvious that most other sources are only good in niche settings. I mean, why use small modular reactors to load-follow when they can just produce that power instead of buffering it?
Naoto Otsuka
Nuclear Technology | Volume 180 | Number 1 | October 2012 | Pages 46-64
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT12-A14518
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper proposes a fuzzy method of evaluating horizontal nuclear proliferation risk for more efficient use of the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA's) integrated safeguards (IS). The nuclear proliferation risk Rj of nation j is defined as (1 - j) × (1 - j), where j is the probability of nation j maintaining only peaceful nuclear activities for at least 1 yr, is the probability that the IAEA's IS detect indicators of nuclear explosive device (NED) acquisition activities, and j is the probability that the international community will force nation j to abandon these activities after the indications are detected.Because j is equal to and replaces the concept of nuclear nonproliferation credibility used in previous studies, this paper uses a method of deriving this credibility and converting it into j, which is evaluated using trapezoidal fuzzy numbers. Case studies of four nations currently under the IS reveal that the probability of IS detection of indicators of NED activity can be reduced by several tens of percent for some countries without exceeding the upper limit of horizontal nuclear proliferation risk that the international community had accepted in the past.Therefore, depending on the value of nuclear proliferation risk determined using the fuzzy method, the IAEA will be able to use its limited resources efficiently by reducing unnecessary expenditures for some nations under the IS and reallocating those resources to inspections of other nations without increasing the risk of proliferation.