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Decommissioning & Environmental Sciences
The mission of the Decommissioning and Environmental Sciences (DES) Division is to promote the development and use of those skills and technologies associated with the use of nuclear energy and the optimal management and stewardship of the environment, sustainable development, decommissioning, remediation, reutilization, and long-term surveillance and maintenance of nuclear-related installations, and sites. The target audience for this effort is the membership of the Division, the Society, and the public at large.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
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!
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Latest News
TerraPower begins U.K. regulatory approval process
Seattle-based TerraPower signaled its interest this week in building its Natrium small modular reactor in the United Kingdom, the company announced.
TerraPower sent a letter to the U.K.’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, formally establishing its intention to enter the U.K. generic design assessment (GDA) process. This is TerraPower’s first step in deployment of its Natrium technology—a 345-MW sodium fast reactor coupled with a molten salt energy storage unit—on the international stage.
A. De Volpi, R. J. Pecina, R. T. Daly, D. J. Travis, R. R. Stewart, E. A. Rhodes
Nuclear Technology | Volume 27 | Number 3 | November 1975 | Pages 449-487
Technical Paper | Instruments | doi.org/10.13182/NT75-1
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The fast-neutron hodoscope detects fuel motion within test samples inserted in the center of the Transient Reactor Test Facility (TREAT) reactor core. The hodoscope system has been built to support the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration nuclear reactor safety testing program in which fuel motion is induced under simulated hypothetical conditions. Optical detection methods cannot be used due to opacity of fuel capsules and sodium coolant required in the tests for the sodium-cooled fast breeder reactor program. The hodoscope system includes components necessary to acquire, store, decode, and process the collected data. An area at the test fuel plane 5.7 cm (horizontal) × 52 cm (vertical) is viewed through 334 slots in a steel collimator by an array of 334 Hornyak button fast-neutron detectors. Collimator and detectors are external to the reactor. Horizontal and vertical spatial resolution of fuel pin motion as small as 0.25 and 8 mm, respectively, with a signal-to-background ratio of 7, can be achieved. Test samples can be single- or multipin assemblies enclosed in autoclaves or flowing sodium loops. When a 7-pin cluster is inserted in a flowing sodium loop, horizontal spatial resolution of fuel motion deteriorates to ∼6 mm and the signal-to-background ratio for any one of the pins is reduced to ∼2 (as much as 5 cm of material radially surrounds the fuel pins in this case). Transients at TREAT typically range from 20 to 20 000 MW when the hodoscope is used. To satisfy test objectives, data must be recorded from each detector at count rates up to 2 million/ sec each, time-resolved down to millisecond intervals. This is accomplished in a relatively reliable and inexpensive manner by displaying counts from each detector sequentially in binary code on a lamp panel, which is photographed by a high-speed framing camera, producing a film record of the transient test.