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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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
U.K.’s NWS gets input from young people on geological disposal
Nuclear Waste Services, the radioactive waste management subsidiary of the United Kingdom’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, has reported on its inaugural year of the National Youth Forum on Geological Disposal forum. NWS set up the initiative, in partnership with the environmental consultancy firm ARUP and the not-for-profit organization The Young Foundation, to give young people the chance to share their views on the government’s plans to develop a geological disposal facility (GDF) for the safe, secure, and long-term disposal of radioactive waste.
Londrea J. Garrett, Milos Burger, Adam Burak, Xiaodong Sun, Piyush Sabharwall, Igor Jovanovic
Nuclear Technology | Volume 209 | Number 8 | August 2023 | Pages 1189-1196
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2023.2196233
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
It is well established that a rapid increase in the concentration of fission products in the reactor coolant stream can serve as an early indication of fuel failure. We use Monte Carlo simulations to investigate the feasibility of using several gamma detectors as diagnostic equipment to monitor the presence of major fission product isotopes in high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) coolant streams for early detection of fuel failure and therefore the prevention of fuel failure conditions. We model the response of high-purity germanium (HPGe), CdZnTe, NaI(Tl), and LaBr3(Ce) detectors of typical commercial sizes to the gamma emissions from nuclides expected to be found within the coolant stream of the Versatile Test Reactor (VTR) under development by the U.S. Department of Energy. The results indicate that for the 233- and 250-keV gamma rays from 133Xe and 135Xe, respectively, the detection criterion is met in under 1 min using a single HPGe detector. Changes in other spectral lines associated with Xe nuclides are detected within 1 h regardless of the choice of detector.
