ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
Latest Magazine Issues
Jul 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
September 2026
Nuclear Technology
August 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
The human factor in licensing and operating the next generation of nuclear plants
As human factors specialists working at the intersection of human performance and nuclear operations, we are witnessing one of the nuclear sector’s most significant transitions in decades. The emergence of small modular reactors, microreactors, and other advanced designs is reshaping the industry’s landscape. Digital instrumentation and controls, passive safety systems, and increased automation are creating opportunities for greater safety margins and more flexible operation. These same features also fundamentally redefine what it means to “operate” a nuclear plant. Interactions among human roles, automation, and passive systems shape how people maintain awareness, exercise judgment, and intervene when necessary. These developments affect both operational realities and the regulatory foundations on which nuclear safety is built.
Jeng-Ning Wang, Chung-Hsin Lu, Kuo-Wei Lee, Uei-Tyng Lin, Shiang-Huei Jiang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 168 | Number 1 | October 2009 | Pages 101-107
Dose/Dose Rate | 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-A9107
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The site dose rate of a spent-fuel storage facility to the populace is a major concern in a radiation protection project. Shielding analysis of the facility must be performed to ensure that the nearby dose rates are within regulation limitations. The purpose of this study was to simulate an independent spent-fuel storage installation (ISFSI) storage facility with different methods and different conditions for validation and analysis. The discrete ordinates code DORT and the SKYSHINE III code were used for the cask surface flux estimation and the site dose rate calculation, respectively. The Monte Carlo code MCNP was also utilized to estimate the surface dose rate and site dose rate by its subsequent calculation. Various cask decay heats (23, 14, and 7 kW/cask) were considered as the source conditions. A facility layout composed of 30 casks was also simulated by the MCNP code and analyzed for the cask self-shielding effect to a certain detecting point. For a single storage cask, comparisons of the site dose rates calculated by different methods were carried out at variant distances. For the layout simulation, the calculated results indicated that the self-shielding effect could be roughly classified into several groups according to the location of the storage cask, and a factor could be assigned to each group. These classified factors might help to infer the site dose in variant layout designs. The site dose rates calculated by different codes were compared for the whole facility, too. In spite of the similar dose rates on the cask surface, the difference of site dose rates changes with decay heat. The layout study of the ISFSI facility could offer information to make the site dose estimation more efficient as many layout assessments are needed.