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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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DOE fast tracks test reactor projects: What to know
The Department of Energy today unveiled 10 companies racing to bring test reactors online by next year to meet Trump's deadline of next Independance Day, leveraging a new DOE pathway that allows reactor authorization outside national labs. As first outlined in one of the four executive orders on nuclear energy released by President Trump on May 23 and in the request for applications for the Reactor Pilot Program released June 18, the companies must use their own money and sites—and DOE authorization—to get reactors operating. What they won’t need is a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license.
Edward J. Bouwer, John W. McKlveen, W. J. McDowell
Nuclear Technology | Volume 42 | Number 1 | January 1979 | Pages 102-111
Technical Paper | Analysis | doi.org/10.13182/NT79-A32166
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A method utilizing solvent extraction coupled with liquid scintillation spectrometry has been developed for the assay of uranium and thorium in fertilizers and phosphate-containing minerals and chemicals. Trioctylphosphine oxide in toluene is used to extract uranium and thorium from a perchloric and nitric acid solution, with phosphate interference being suppressed by the addition of aluminum ion. The uranium and thorium are stripped from this solution, and uranium is separated from the thorium by selective reextraction of uranium into a scintillator with Adogen 364 (tertiary amine) sulfate. The thorium remaining in the aqueous is reextracted into another scintillator with (primary) 1-nonyldecylamine sulfate. Both nuclides are counted separately in a high-resolution liquid scintillation spectrometer. The sensitivity of the counting method is enhanced by the use of pulse-shape rejection of the beta-gamma background. Results indicate a detection threshold of 0.0038 pCi of uranium (1.1 part/108) with a 1000-min counting time. Reproducibility of ±2.5% was found at the 50-ppm level. For thorium detection, thresholds are 4 part/1013 for the same counting time with ±3.0% average recovery of 230Th and 7 part/108 of 232Th.