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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Deep Space: The new frontier of radiation controls
In commercial nuclear power, there has always been a deliberate tension between the regulator and the utility owner. The regulator fundamentally exists to protect the worker, and the utility, to make a profit. It is a win-win balance.
From the U.S. nuclear industry has emerged a brilliantly successful occupational nuclear safety record—largely the result of an ALARA (as low as reasonably achievable) process that has driven exposure rates down to what only a decade ago would have been considered unthinkable. In the U.S. nuclear industry, the system has accomplished an excellent, nearly seamless process that succeeds to the benefit of both employee and utility owner.
L. Rodrigo, J.M. Miller, S.R. Bokwa, R.E. Johnson, B.M. MacDonald, J. Senohrabek
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 21 | Number 2 | March 1992 | Pages 629-635
Safety and Measurement (Monitoring) | doi.org/10.13182/FST92-A29818
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Historically, ionization chambers have been used successfully to measure low-level tritium concentrations in air for radiation protection purposes. Problems have been encountered in applying this technique to measure much higher concentrations of tritium in gases other than air, particularly to measure tritium in argon and helium. An experimental program was, therefore, initiated to investigate the various factors that affect the response of ionization chambers. Carrier gas effects on the measurement of elemental tritium were investigated in the concentration range 0–150 Ci/m3. Higher than theoretical calibration factors were obtained consistently with low-level tritium gas standards in both helium and argon, while with high-level gas standards the experimental calibration factors were close to the theoretical value. Use of a commercial ionization chamber to measure tritiated water vapour in dry air streams resulted in severe contamination of the chamber. Water swamping of the dry air stream reduced the ionization chamber contamination to a negligible level, allowing reliable measurements to be made. The calibration of ionization chambers with representative process gases and operating conditions is necessary to ensure reliable tritium concentration measurements.
