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Meeting 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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Latest News
The U.S. Million Person Study of Low-Dose-Rate Health Effects
There is a critical knowledge gap regarding the health consequences of exposure to radiation received gradually over time. While there is a plethora of studies on the risks of adverse outcomes from both acute and high-dose exposures, including the landmark study of atomic bomb survivors, these are not characteristic of the chronic exposure to low-dose radiation encountered in occupational and public settings. In addition, smaller cohorts have limited numbers leading to reduced statistical power.
M. Yousif Alhaj, Alya Badawi, Hanaa H. Abou-Gabal, Nader M. A. Mohamed
Nuclear Technology | Volume 194 | Number 3 | June 2016 | Pages 314-323
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NT15-78
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This research focuses on the utilization of thorium-plutonium fuel in pressurized water reactors (PWRs). The reference PWR selected in this research was the Westinghouse AP1000. Thorium-plutonium mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel assemblies partially replaced the uranium oxide fuel assemblies to reduce uranium demand. The cases studied contained 36, 48, 60, 72, and 84 thorium-plutonium MOX fuel assemblies, with the rest of the 193 fuel assemblies loaded with UO2 fuel. The core cycle length, the amount of plutonium incinerated, the amount of generated 233U in the spent fuel, and the conversion ratios were determined using MCNP6. For the different cases, safety parameters such as the power peaking factor and delayed neutron fraction (βeff) were evaluated. The study showed that using thorium-plutonium MOX can achieve good peaking power factors with delayed neutron fractions within the safety limits. Also a conversion factor of about 10% was achieved.
