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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.
R. B. Walton, T. D. Reilly, J. L. Parker, J. H. Menzel, E. D. Marshall, L. W. Fields
Nuclear Technology | Volume 21 | Number 2 | February 1974 | Pages 133-148
Technical Paper | Instrument | doi.org/10.13182/NT74-A31369
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The applicability of portable instruments for rapid nondestructive verification of the enrichment of UF6 in cylinders has been tested on a large number of Types-30 and -5A cylinders. Three basic techniques were used: (a) gamma-ray counting with Nal, combined with ultrasonic measurement of cylinder wall thickness, (b) passive-neutron counting, and (c) active-neutron interrogation with thermal neutrons from a radioactive neutron source. The accuracy of the gamma-ray method was ∼5% (1σ) for Type-30 cylinders of UF6 and 2% for highly enriched UF6 in Type-5A cylinders; however, the method occasionally failed for Type-30 cylinders because of background from nonvolatile daughters of 238U plated on the cylinder walls. The standard deviation of enrichments of 110 Type-30 cylinders, derived from passive-neutron counting data by assuming a constant 235U/234U ratio, is The response of the active system increases almost linearly with enrichment up to ∼2.5% 235U and then saturates at ∼4%.
