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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.
Michelangelo Durazzo, Adonis Marcelo Saliba-Silva, Rafael Henrique Lazzari Garcia, Elita Fontenele Urano De Carvalho, Humberto Gracher Riella
Nuclear Technology | Volume 200 | Number 2 | November 2017 | Pages 170-176
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2017.1353870
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Metallic uranium is a fundamental raw material for producing nuclear fuel elements for research reactors and irradiation targets for producing 99Mo, as U3Si2, UMo alloy, UAlx, and uranium thin foils. Magnesiothermic reduction of UF4 is a possible route in the nuclear fuel cycle for producing uranium as a metal ingot. The main concern about the reducing scale to produce low-enriched (metallic) uranium (LEU) (around 1 kg) is the relatively low yield compared to calciothermic reduction. Nevertheless, the magnesiothermic reduction has the advantages of having lower cost and being a safer method for dealing with uranium processing. The magnesiothermic process, as a batch, is closed inside a sealed crucible. In the present study, in order to have a qualitative idea of the kinetics during the ignition moment, the slag projected over the lateral inner face of the crucible was used to sketch the general magnesiothermic evolution. The methods used were metallographic observation and X-ray diffraction followed by Rietveld refinement. The results of these analyses led to the conception of a general reaction development during the short time between the ignition of the reducing reaction and final settlement of the products. Relevant information from this study led to the conclusion that uranium is not primarily present in the lateral slag projection over the crucible during the reaction, and the temperature level may reach 1500°C or more, after the ignition.