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Division Spotlight
Accelerator Applications
The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
Meeting Spotlight
Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
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
Vogtle-3 shuts down for valve issue
One of the new Vogtle units in Georgia was shut down unexpectedly on Monday last week for a valve issue that has since been investigated and repaired. According to multiple local news outlets, Georgia Power reported on July 17 that Unit 3 was back in service.
Southern Company spokesperson Jacob Hawkins confirmed that Vogtle-3 went off line at 9:25 p.m. local time on July 8 “due to lowering water levels in the steam generators caused by a valve issue on one of the three main feedwater pumps.”
Alain Lebrun, Gilles Bignan
Nuclear Technology | Volume 135 | Number 3 | September 2001 | Pages 216-229
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT01-A3217
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Criticality safety analysis devoted to spent-fuel storage and transportation has to be conservative in order to be sure no accident will ever happen. In the spent-fuel storage field, the assumption of freshness has been used to achieve the conservative aspect of criticality safety procedures. Nevertheless, after being irradiated in a reactor core, the fuel elements have obviously lost part of their original reactivity. The concept of taking into account this reactivity loss in criticality safety analysis is known as burnup credit. To be used, burnup credit involves obtaining evidence of the reactivity loss with a burnup measurement.Many nondestructive assays (NDA) based on neutron as well as on gamma-ray emissions are devoted to spent-fuel characterization. Heavy nuclei that compose the fuels are modified during irradiation and cooling. Some of them emit neutrons spontaneously, and the link to burnup is a power link. As a result, burnup determination with passive neutron measurement is extremely accurate.Some gamma emitters also have interesting properties in order to characterize spent fuels, but the convenience of the gamma spectrometric methods is very dependent on the characteristics of the spent fuel. In addition, contrary to the neutron emission, the gamma signal is mostly representative of the peripheral rods of the fuels.Two devices based on neutron methods but combining different NDA methods which have been studied in the past are described in detail:1. The PYTHON device is a combination of a passive neutron measurement, a collimated total gamma measurement, and an online depletion code. This device, which has been used in several nuclear power plants in western Europe, gives the average burnup within a 5% uncertainty and also the extremity burnup.2. The NAJA device is an automatic device that involves three nuclear methods and an online depletion code. It is designed to cover the whole fuel assembly panel (active neutron interrogation, passive neutron counting, and gamma spectrometry).