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Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
Meeting Spotlight
Conference on Nuclear Training and Education: A Biennial International Forum (CONTE 2025)
February 3–6, 2025
Amelia Island, FL|Omni Amelia Island Resort
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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A series of firsts delivers new Plant Vogtle units
Southern Nuclear was first when no one wanted to be.
The nuclear subsidiary of the century-old utility Southern Company, based in Atlanta, Ga., joined a pack of nuclear companies in the early 2000s—during what was then dubbed a “nuclear renaissance”—bullish on plans for new large nuclear facilities and adding thousands of new carbon-free megawatts to the grid.
In 2008, Southern Nuclear applied for a combined construction and operating license (COL), positioning the company to receive the first such license from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2012. Also in 2008, Southern became the first U.S. company to sign an engineering, procurement, and construction contract for a Generation III+ reactor. Southern chose Westinghouse’s AP1000 pressurized water reactor, which was certified by the NRC in December 2011.
Fast forward a dozen years—which saw dozens of setbacks and hundreds of successes—and Southern Nuclear and its stakeholders celebrated the completion of Vogtle Units 3 and 4: the first new commercial nuclear power construction project completed in the U.S. in more than 30 years.
Tomaz Zagar, Matjaz Ravnik
Nuclear Technology | Volume 140 | Number 1 | October 2002 | Pages 113-126
Technical Paper | Radioisotopes | doi.org/10.13182/NT02-A3327
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The results of activation studies of TRIGA research reactor concrete shielding are given. Samples made of ordinary and barytes concrete were irradiated in the reactor to simulate neutron activation in the shielding concrete. Long-lived neutron-induced gamma-ray-emitting radioactive nuclides were measured in the samples with a high-purity germanium detector. The most active long-lived radioactive nuclides in the ordinary concrete samples were found to be 60Co and 152Eu. In the barytes concrete samples, the most active long-lived radioactive nuclides were 60Co, 133Ba, and 152Eu. Activation in the concrete was also calculated using the ORIGEN2 code and compared to experimental results. Simple radioactive nuclide generation and depletion calculation using one-group cross-section libraries provided together with the ORIGEN2 code did not give conservative results. Significant discrepancies were observed for some nuclides. For accurate long-lived radioactive nuclide generation in reactor shielding, material-specific cross-section libraries should be generated and verified by measurement.
