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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.
Jorge Molina Avila, Maria Do Carmo Lopes
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 96 | Number 4 | August 1987 | Pages 310-317
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE87-A16394
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A previously developed formalism is applied to calculate the sensitivity of cobalt prompt response self-powered neutron detectors. Differential and average sensitivities in thermal and epithermal energy regions are calculated, and their dependence on the geometrical factors is studied. A simple analytical expression is proposed for the first-collision absorption probability, which is a good approximation to the exact function. This expression is used to obtain the epithermal selfshielding factor as a function of the radius of the emitter and the parameters of the interaction. The thermal sensitivity, as the main contributor to the current, is studied as a function of the emitter radius. Finally, a criterion to evaluate the accuracy of the parameters of the model is established in the form of some interval rule. This interval rule should encourage the performance of better measurements and calculations.
