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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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.
F. B. Simpson, W. H. Burgus, J. E. Evans, H. W. Kirby
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 12 | Number 2 | February 1962 | Pages 243-249
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE62-A26064
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The total cross section for Pa231 was measured from 0.01 ev to 2 kev, with the use of the Materials Testing Reactor fast chopper with resolutions from 0.040 to 2.0 µsec/meter. The Breit-Wigner resonance parameters have been obtained for the resonances below 11.0 ev. These measurements were made with samples prepared from 0.558 gm of Pa2O5. Weighting the level spacings inversely as 2J + 1 gives the average observed level spacings per spin state of 0.72 and 1.2 ev. This is one of the smallest spacings observed in any isotope. The average parameters give a value of 0.63 × 10−4 for the s-wave neutron strength function . A linear least squares fit to the data between 0.015 and 0.03 ev gives a value of 211 ± 2 barns for the thermal cross section. The resonance absorption integral (for neutrons with energies > 0.1 ev) is 1560 ± 55 barns, with a contribution of approximately 65% from the 0.396 ev resonance.