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Decommissioning & Environmental Sciences
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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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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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.
I. Murata, H. Miyamaru, I. Kato, S. Yoshida, Y. Mori
Nuclear Technology | Volume 168 | Number 2 | November 2009 | Pages 373-377
Neutron Measurements | Special Issue on the 11th International Conference on Radiation Shielding and the 15th Topical Meeting of the Radiation Protection and Shielding Division (Part 2) / Radiation Measurements and Instrumentation | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A9212
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Accelerator-based neutron sources are being developed worldwide. In a neutron source, it is essential to know the characteristics of the field including neutrons and gamma rays. However, for the neutron, it is still difficult to measure the energy spectrum below 10 keV. In the present study, a low-energy neutron spectrometer has been designed and developed to examine the accelerator-based neutron source performance. The proposed spectrometer will finally cover neutron energy from the thermal-to-kilo-electron-volt region and is based on a 3He proportional counter. It is positioned in parallel with the incident neutron beam, and the reaction depth distribution is measured. Since the reaction depth distribution varies depending on the incident neutron energy, it can be converted to the neutron energy spectrum. The spectrometer is 50 cm long × 5 cm in diameter with a gas pressure of 0.5 MPa. Recently, a prototype detector was completed, and the signal test is now in progress. The preliminary test result has described the present spectrometer availability as a low-energy neutron spectrometer for an accelerator-based neutron source. Because this kind of spectrometer did not exist heretofore, the spectrometer can be applied to neutron source facilities, e.g., proton accelerators like the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC) and nuclear reactors as well as accelerator-based neutron sources for boron neutron capture therapy like the fixed field alternating gradient-emittance-energy recovery internal target (FFAG-ERIT).