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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
Standards Program
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.
D. W. LaBelle
Nuclear Technology | Volume 10 | Number 4 | April 1971 | Pages 454-459
Technical Paper | Symposium on Reactor Containment Spray System Technology / Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT71-A16256
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Since all materials of construction are not compatible with spray solutions, an additional problem must be resolved. The corrosion of aluminum and zinc fabricated or coated components in a typical PWR plant when contacted with the sodium hydroxide in the alkaline sodium thiosulfate spray solution is a major contributor to post-accident hydrogen generation. When the hydrogen from metals corrosion is combined with the hydrogen generated from radiolytic decomposition of the coolant and the Zircaloy-water reaction of the overheated fuel cladding, hydrogen can reach a flammable concentration level in the reactor building within 1 to 2 months after a LOCA.
