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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.
Delwin M. Romrell, Don M. Art, Richard D. Redekopp, James B. Waldo, Jerry L. Marshall
Nuclear Technology | Volume 86 | Number 3 | September 1989 | Pages 264-274
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle | doi.org/10.13182/NT89-A34294
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The fuel handling sequence at the Fast Flux Test Reactor in Richland, Washington, utilizes several computer-aided fuel handling machines, a fuel conditioning station, and fuel storage vessels. Each system is designed to appropriately maintain the sodium-wetted fuel in an argon atmosphere (to prevent sodium reaction with moisture and oxygen) and control the temperature of the fuel assembly within the specified limits. Refueling experience has been used to decrease plant refueling time. Equipment utilization has exceeded original estimates because of changes in the irradiation program. Most of the fuel handling equipment has operated reliably, but with aging, some equipment upgrades are in progress or are being planned.
