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CLEAN SMART bill reintroduced in Senate
Senators Ben Ray Luján (D., N.M.) and Tim Scott (R., S.C.) have reintroduced legislation aimed at leveraging the best available science and technology at U.S. national laboratories to support the cleanup of legacy nuclear waste.
The Combining Laboratory Expertise to Accelerate Novel Solutions for Minimizing Accumulated Radioactive Toxins (CLEAN SMART) Act, introduced on February 11, would authorize up to $58 million annually to develop, demonstrate, and deploy innovative technologies, targeting reduced costs and safer, faster remediation of sites from the Manhattan Project and Cold War.
M. Edward Anderson
Nuclear Technology | Volume 4 | Number 3 | March 1968 | Pages 142-147
Technical Paper and Note | doi.org/10.13182/NT68-A26377
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The neutron yields of plutonium-beryllium (α,n) sources, made of nominal 239Pu, are increasing due to the buildup of 241Am, an alpha emitter, from the beta-decay of 241Pu which is present in these sources. Measured increases in yields are compared with predicted increases based on the isotopic composition of the plutonium used in these sources. In cases where the isotopic composition was not previously known, the composition was deduced from calorimetric measurements. Sources were found to have initial rates of increase of up to 2% per year. In all cases except one the measured rate of increase was in agreement with the predicted rate.