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Conference Spotlight
2026 Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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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Industry Update—November 2025
Here is a recap of recent industry happenings:
TerraPower’s Natrium plans for Wyoming, Utah move forward
TerraPower has reported a number of developments related to its Natrium sodium fast reactor project. In the project’s fifth round of procurement awards, the company awarded three supplier contracts to support the Natrium plant’s construction, which is underway in Kemmerer, Wyo., and is expected to be completed in 2030. AvanTech will design advanced sodium processing system modules and supporting skids for the Natrium plant, as well as fabricate and deliver the test and fill facility cold trap skid. Structural Integrity Associates will design and fabricate the sodium cover gas gamma spectroscopy analysis cabinet, a radiation monitoring system. PAR Systems will design and fabricate the pool handling machine, a specialized crane system for spent fuel pool operations.
Mathew W. Swinney, Douglas E. Peplow, Bruce W. Patton, Andrew D. Nicholson, Daniel E. Archer, Michael J. Willis
Nuclear Technology | Volume 203 | Number 3 | September 2018 | Pages 325-335
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2018.1458558
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The detection of radioactive sources in an urban setting is greatly complicated by natural background radiation, which emanates from various materials including roadways, sidewalks, soil, and building exteriors. The method presented and demonstrated here represents an effort to characterize the concentration of naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) in these types of materials. The location surveyed in this work was the Fort Indiantown Gap Combined Arms Collective Training Facility in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. Over 70 measurements with a high-purity germanium detector were performed to ascertain the NORM concentrations present in the soil, asphalt, gravel, concrete, and walls found throughout the site. Monte Carlo radiation transport calculations were used to obtain detector responses for these various geometries and materials to convert these measurements into NORM concentration estimates. Finally, synthetic spectra were simulated using the predicted source terms and compared to actual measurements, showing acceptable agreement.