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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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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.
John M. Dawson
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 22 | Number 1 | August 1992 | Pages 98-102
Technical Paper | D-3He/Fusion Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/FST92-A30058
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Nonenergy applications of fusion reactors are considered. The direct use of the 14.7-MeV protons from the D-3He reaction for the production of positron-emitting isotopes for medical, industrial, and scientific uses is explored in some detail. Inside a working D-3He reactor, the 14.7-MeV proton flux is of the order of 1022 cm2/s. The conversion of fertile nuclei to useful nuclei can be very prolific. Since the value of such isotopes can be very high (approximately $1012/g), it is possible to have an economical reactor for a machine that just breaks even or is even below breakeven in energy terms. Existing research devices can produce interesting quantities of isotopes for experimental and demonstration purposes. A major problem is the development of a demand for the large quantities of positron emitters that could be produced. If such a source of isotopes were to exist, as with many new developments, the demand would probably follow.
