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The mission of the Decommissioning and Environmental Sciences (DES) Division is to promote the development and use of those skills and technologies associated with the use of nuclear energy and the optimal management and stewardship of the environment, sustainable development, decommissioning, remediation, reutilization, and long-term surveillance and maintenance of nuclear-related installations, and sites. The target audience for this effort is the membership of the Division, the Society, and the public at large.
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Commercial nuclear innovation "new space" age
In early 2006, a start-up company launched a small rocket from a tiny island in the Pacific. It exploded, showering the island with debris. A year later, a second launch attempt sent a rocket to space but failed to make orbit, burning up in the atmosphere. Another year brought a third attempt—and a third failure. The following month, in September 2008, the company used the last of its funds to launch a fourth rocket. It reached orbit, making history as the first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to do so.
Chul Hee Min, Jang Guen Park, Chan Hyeong Kim
Nuclear Technology | Volume 168 | Number 1 | October 2009 | Pages 89-92
Detectors | Special Issue on the 11th International Conference on Radiation Shielding and the 15th Topical Meeting of the Radiation Protection and Shielding Division (Part 1) / Radiation Protection | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A9105
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A scanning-type prompt gamma measurement system, called prompt gamma scanner (PGS), was constructed and used to determine the relationship between the proton dose distribution and the longitudinal profile of the prompt gammas generated by the nuclear interaction from the proton beam passage in a medium. However, the PGS system entails insuperable difficulties when used in clinical proton therapy owing to its scanning process. In order to measure the prompt gamma distribution without the scanning process, it was proposed to develop an array-type prompt gamma measurement system that can measure the prompt gammas with a linear array of radiation detectors through multiple collimation slits. Prior to constructing a full-scale measurement system with many detectors and multiple data acquisition channels, a simplified prototype measurement system, using only one detector moving from one measurement location to the next, was constructed in the present study and applied to a 39-MeV proton beam. The results are very encouraging, as the prototype measurement system predicted the distal dose edge very accurately within a few millimeters of error despite the fact that the level of background gammas increased as a result of reduced collimator shielding.