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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.
W. L. Dutré, A. F. Debosscher
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 62 | Number 3 | March 1977 | Pages 355-363
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE77-A26977
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper presents an exact and complete statistical analysis of the neutron density fluctuations resulting from Gaussian white reactivity noise in a point reactor model with proportional power feedback, but without delayed neutrons. The analysis includes the multiplicative effect of neutron density and reactivity variations. An exact solution of the time-independent Fokker-Planck equation is found, resulting in a gamma density function for the stationary first-order probability density of the power fluctuations. The time-dependent Fokker-Planck equation is solved for the Laplace transformed function, which can be written in terms of confluent hypergeometric functions. The subsequent inversion yields the transition probability density function. The most common first- and second-order statistical characteristics, such as moments, autocovariance function, and power spectral density, are calculated and compared to the results of a linearized analysis.