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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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August 2025
Latest News
DOE-NE’s newest fuel consortium includes defense from antitrust laws
The Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy is setting up a nuclear fuel Defense Production Act Consortium that will seek voluntary agreements with interested companies “to increase fuel availability, provide more access to reliable power, and end America’s reliance on foreign sources of enriched uranium and critical materials needed to power the nation’s nuclear renaissance.” According to an August 22 DOE press release, the plan invokes the Defense Production Act (DPA) to give consortium members “defense from antitrust laws when certain criteria are met” and “allow industry consultation to develop plans of action.” DOE-NE is looking for interested companies to join the consortium ahead of its first meeting, scheduled for October 14.
Jiaji He, Zach Hileman, Daniel Homa, Anbo Wang, Gary Pickrell (Virginia Tech), Alexander D. Braatz (ORNL), Brian Risch (Prysmian Group)
Proceedings | Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technolgies (NPIC&HMIT 2019) | Orlando, FL, February 9-14, 2019 | Pages 238-245
Continuous and real time health monitoring of structural components has become of paramount importance in nuclear facilities to proactively address potential failures that result in the shutdown of operation and/or health and environmental. Subsequently, there has been an intense interest in fiber optic sensing technologies because of their relative tolerance to radiation exposure and elevated temperatures. Nonetheless, challenges remain prevalent with respect to reliability and cost. To address these concerns, while also taking advantage of the fiber optic materials, an acoustic based sensing technique has been developed to monitor phenomena such as temperature to better evaluate the aging and degradation of critical structures such as nuclear containment components, cable insulation, and metal pressure boundaries. Recently, a unique single mode acoustic waveguide design with strong power confinement and relatively low loss was demonstrated in an all-silica acoustic fiber. The “suspended core” acoustic waveguide consists of a pure silica glass core with an inner air cladding and outer silica cladding. In addition, a temperature sensor was demonstrated by monitoring the time of flight in the suspended core. The first-of-its-kind acoustic waveguide structure and sensor represents the first step in the development of a low-cost, reliable sensing system for the deployment of the fiber sensor arrays for the next generation of 3D network monitoring solutions.