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Meeting 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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Latest News
The U.S. Million Person Study of Low-Dose-Rate Health Effects
There is a critical knowledge gap regarding the health consequences of exposure to radiation received gradually over time. While there is a plethora of studies on the risks of adverse outcomes from both acute and high-dose exposures, including the landmark study of atomic bomb survivors, these are not characteristic of the chronic exposure to low-dose radiation encountered in occupational and public settings. In addition, smaller cohorts have limited numbers leading to reduced statistical power.
Javier Gil, Mateo Ramos, Luis Rejas, (Tecnatom)
Proceedings | Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technolgies (NPIC&HMIT 2019) | Orlando, FL, February 9-14, 2019 | Pages 1644-1648
Technical Specifications are intended to ensure that nuclear power plants operate within the hypotheses for safety analysis and within the limits calculated from these analyses. It is only through strict adherence to them that it is guaranteed the plant safety operation and that design parameters are maintained as specified in the Safety Study. To this end, it is needed to comply with the Limiting Conditions for Operation (LCO), to implement the Surveillance Requirements within the specified frequency and to execute required actions within the time period if needed. Tecnatom has designed and developed a digital tool for online monitoring of Technical Specifications. It enables surveillance requirements planning, identifying their status and the time available for its implementation providing the user information to update their planning. The application compares continuously current plant status with the Technical Specifications. Each time a Limiting Condition for Operation is surpassed, the user will receive an alert and will count on a friendly interface to follow-up the required actions in a paper-based or flowchart view. The user interface shows the actions that are being executed and their remaining time. This digital tool facilitates Technical Specifications monitoring and compliance contributing to safe and reliable plant operation. Functionalities such as integration with digital plant monitoring or control systems, interactive representation of LCO, alerts and actions execution reports provide significant advantages compared with traditional follow-up based on paper documents reducing human errors and optimizing the planning. This system greatly reduces the chances for failing to meet the surveillance requirements and therefore the number of reportable events. It also contributes to better reaction by the operator in the event of non-compliance. It is also a powerful tool to support during operation modes transitions as it verifies the plant status complies with all the LCO in the current mode and those needed to change the operation mode.
