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2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 8–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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Latest News
DNFSB’s Summers ends board tenure, extending agency’s loss of quorum
Lee
Summers
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, the independent agency responsible for ensuring that Department of Energy facilities are protective of public health and safety, announced that the board’s acting chairman, Thomas Summers, has concluded his service with the agency, having completed his second term as a board member on October 18.
Summers’ departure leaves Patricia Lee, who joined the DNFSB after being confirmed by the Senate in July 2024, as the board’s only remaining member and acting chair. Lee’s DNFSB board term ends in October 2027.
L. J. Mullins, J. A. Leary
Nuclear Technology | Volume 6 | Number 4 | April 1969 | Pages 287-297
Technical Papers and Note | doi.org/10.13182/NT69-A28336
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The successful utilization of 238Pu as a biomedical radioisotopic power source requires that the external radiation of 238Pu be understood quantitatively and kept to a minimum. To achieve these objectives 238Pu metal (80 at.% 238Pu) of high chemical purity has been prepared and characterized. An electrorefining process was developed to prepare the metal on a 1-cm3 scale. The neutron emission rate of three lots of electrorefined metal was 2446 (±30) n/sec per gram Pu. Correcting this measured rate for chemical impurities and fast fission gives a spontaneous fission rate of 2234 n/sec per gram Pu, or 2800 n/sec per gram of 238Pu. Neutron and gamma dose rates were also measured. Plutonium-238-gallium alloy, 238PuO2, and 238PuN were prepared and evaluated as radioisotopic heat sources.
