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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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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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Latest News
NNSA awards BWXT $1.5B defense fuels contract
The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration has awarded BWX Technologies a contract valued at $1.5 billion to build a Domestic Uranium Enrichment Centrifuge Experiment (DUECE) pilot plant in Tennessee in support of the administration’s efforts to build out a domestic supply of unobligated enriched uranium for defense-related nuclear fuel.
L. G. Faust, L. W. Brackenbush, R. C. Smith, L. L. Nichols, D. W. Brite
Nuclear Technology | Volume 15 | Number 2 | August 1972 | Pages 249-256
Technical Paper | Plutonium Utilization in Commercial Power Reactors / Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT72-A31149
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Gamma and neutron radiation dose rates from various experimental fuel assemblies and from full-size commercial BWR and PWR power reactor fuel assemblies containing UO2-PuO2 fuel with high exposure plutonium were measured. Maximum gamma and neutron dose rates encountered at 61-cm distance from the surfaces of the fuel assemblies were 6.5 mR/h and 25 mrem/h, respectively. It is concluded that commercial reactor operators can handle fuel assemblies containing high exposure plutonium without excessive personnel exposure and with a minimum of special handling procedures. However, radiation shielding for some fuel fabrication steps will be necessary with plutonium of the type expected to become available during the late 1970s.