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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.
Martin Bengtsson, Peter Jansson, Ulrika Bäckström, Fredrik Johansson, Anders Sjöland
Nuclear Technology | Volume 208 | Number 2 | February 2022 | Pages 295-302
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2021.1880851
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A method to determine the absolute activity of 137Cs in irradiated nuclear fuel is presented. Using a well-known point-like calibration source in combination with measurements of the gamma-ray intensity from the nuclear fuel and Monte Carlo calculations based on the nominal measurement geometry, the activity content can be determined without prior knowledge of the intrinsic detection efficiency of the gamma-ray detector. The presented method is tested using measurements of the 137Cs intensity from spent nuclear fuel of the pressurized water type at the central interim storage in Sweden. Using an assumption of homogeneous distribution of 137Cs throughout the fuel, we demonstrate a linear relationship between measured activity and the activity calculated by a state-of-the-art simulation code. For future studies, we suggest some factors that potentially can decrease the uncertainty in the correlation between measured and calculated activity.