ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Jul 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
September 2025
Nuclear Technology
August 2025
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.
R. E. Maerker
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 96 | Number 4 | August 1987 | Pages 263-289
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE87-A16391
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A second example of applying the LEPRICON methodology to an existing pressurized water reactor is described. The present application is an analysis of ad hoc dosimetry inserted into the H. B. Robinson-2 reactor to monitor the effects on pressure vessel fluence produced by the introduction of a low-leakage fuel management scheme during cycle 9. The use of the simultaneous dosimetry at both a downcomer location and in the reactor cavity allowed a quantitative evaluation to be made by the LEPRICON procedure of the relative merits of each location. Unfolded results using the dosimetry indicate that the cumulative neutron fluence above 1 MeV originally calculated for the critical lower circumferential weld of the pressure vessel during cycle 9, 7.2 × 1017 n/cm2± 15.9%, should be adjusted upward by about one standard deviation to a value of 8.8 × 1017 n/cm2 with a reduced uncertainty of 10.9%.